Did Rep. Ted Lieu confront FBI Director Kash Patel with a secret Epstein recording in which Patel says, "Trump told me to bury it"? No, that's not true: During a congressional hearing in September 2025, Lieu confronted Patel with a recording, but it was not a "secret recording"; it was a publicly available interview with journalist Michael Wolff. Patel was…
Does a photo show an Iranian missile with "In memory of the victims of Epstein Island" written on it? No, that's not true: An online AI image detection tool found that the image shows signs of digital manipulation, with portions edited or generated using Google AI. A "clean" version of the image without any writing on it also dates back…
Are photos of Bill Clinton and Stephen Hawking dressed in pajamas and a princess outfit, respectively, real and found in the Epstein files? No, that's not true: The creator of the images has admitted they were not real. He told Lead Stories he generated the images in Grok and "published them on sites and groups clearly identified as sharing AI-generated…
Did real never-before-seen images of Trump and Epstein together with young girls originate from a Department of Justice release of Epstein files? No, that's not true: The images are AI-generated and originated from a video published in Nov. 2025 by a tabloid-style Spanish language TikTok account. Credible news sources have not reported on these images, and the DOJ file numbers…
Did an Army prankster insert a photo of Jeffrey Epstein captioned "WHY WE FIGHT" into a "Manual for Warfighters" published by Pete Hegseth? No, that's not true: That story came from a satirical account on X that posts comedy content. There were no news reports about any such prank involving 100,000 printed copies for "soldiers training to invade Iran". The…
Does a post about Mark Zuckerberg's supposed subpoena accurately reflect recent reporting on the Jeffrey Epstein front company, Butterfly Foundation, named in the Tehran files? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no news articles about the supposed subpoena or mentioning the statement "Mr. Zuckerberg will cooperate fully" the post said his lawyers released. The "Butterfly Foundation" is not named…
Do the Epstein files reveal that "cannibal" Ellen DeGeneres ate Anne Heche after murdering her? No, that's not true: The only mention of Heche in the Department of Justice (DOJ) Epstein files is from a newspaper headline in the sidebar of another article. There is nothing in the Epstein files suggesting DeGeneres murdered Heche or cannibalized her body. Heche died…
Is a video of Donald Trump with blindfolded children that claims to have come "out of the Epstein files" real? No, that's not true: There is no record of an image or video showing President Trump with blindfolded children with Jeffrey Epstein. The video is a mashup of footage of Trump and Epstein and children that appears to be AI-generated.…
Is Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei not mentioned in the "Epstein files," as a viral social media post said? No, that's not true: Searching the files released by the Department of Justice for his name brought up 196 results. Most of the mentions appear to be from news headlines in emails sent or received by Epstein. The claim appeared in…
Does a viral image prove that Ghislaine Maxwell, a socialite convicted of sex trafficking for Jeffrey Epstein, touched Melania Trump's breast while posing next to Donald Trump at a party in the early 2000s? No, that's not true: A real photo of them was digitally altered to change the position of Maxwell's hand. In the original shot, Maxwell's arm rests…
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