Is a photo that shows Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein with young girls and boys authentic and part of the Department of Justice's publicly released Epstein files? No, that's not true: The image shows clear signs of being created by AI. The photo has not been released in the Department of Justice Epstein files as of the publication date of this fact check.
The claim appeared in a February 2, 2026, post on X.com account @warrior_na92602 (archived here). It opened:
This is public info now from the Epstein files.
RESIGN
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of x.com/warrior_na92602.)
While AI detection tools including Hive Moderation did not rate the image as likely to have been AI-generated, the image includes the kind of visual anomalies that are common in AI-generated pictures. The little boy with curly black hair appears to have five fingers and a thumb tucking under the arm of the girl behind him. Though he is holding her wrist, the details of her hand are not as distinct as his, nor that of the girl in stripes, although all three hands are in the same focal plane, as this screenshot shows (red circle added by Lead Stories):
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of x.com/warrior_na92602.)
Trump's right hand is missing a finger, or a thumb, as this screenshot shows (red circle added by Lead Stories):
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of x.com/warrior_na92602.)
The nose of the girl standing in front of Trump appears to just fade into her face without any nostrils, as this screenshot shows (red circle added by Lead Stories):
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of x.com/warrior_na92602.)
A Google Lens search for other versions of the image did not find anything older than Jan. 30, 2026, when the government released a new batch of documents and photos from the Epstein file.
A Facebook post (archived here) on Jan. 30, 2026, claimed the image was found in a batch of documents labeled EFTA01660679.pdf. Those documents are available on the Department of Justice website (archived here) and they do not include the photo. Here is a screenshot of the Facebook post:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of facebook.com/ceepostblocked.)
The photo has a handwritten date of 7/7/1997. However, a well-known photo of Epstein and Trump together on Jan. 1, 1997, shows at that time Epstein had silver hair. Epstein has dark hair in the photo in the social media post referenced in this fact-check. Here is the photo from Getty Images (archived here):
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of Gettyimages.com.)
Lead Stories reached out to the Department of Justice for comment and will update the post when a response is received.
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This claim was also investigated by Snopes.com.
