Justice Department Closes the Book on Epstein Conspiracy — and Sparks an AI Frenzy
By Jack Olson and Sofia Rubinson
What happened: After the Justice Department and FBI on July 7 released a memo concluding that the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide and that there is no “client list” of elite co-conspirators, AI-generated photos purporting to show President Donald Trump in compromising positions with Epstein spread rapidly on social media.
Context: The long-awaited Justice Department-FBI memo contradicted earlier statements by prominent Trump administration officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, who appeared to confirm the existence of a “client list” during a Fox News interview, and FBI deputy director Dan Bongino, who previously implied that Epstein did not kill himself.
The memo was greeted with cries of a “cover-up” by social media users across the political spectrum, including by MAGA supporters and QAnon conspiracy theorists who had long predicted that the Trump administration would expose multiple Democratic politicians as pedophiles.
A closer look: Conspiracy-minded social media users on both sides of the political spectrum now allege that the Trump administration is hiding the supposed “client list” because Trump himself is on it, citing images that appear to show Trump and Epstein posing together with underaged girls.
Crowded parties: Two viral AI images (shown below) depict Trump and Epstein in contact with what appear to be young girls. The images first gained traction on social media in the wake of Trump’s public feud with Elon Musk in June 2025, during which Musk claimed with no supporting evidence that Trump was named in the FBI’s sex trafficking investigation of Epstein. These claims got a boost after the release of the Justice Department memo.
Island dance: Another AI image shows a middle-aged Trump dancing with a purported 13-year-old girl, with overlaid text claiming the photo was taken on Epstein’s private island. The photo has spread online for at least two years, emerging again in the wake of the Trump-Musk feud and now, with the release of the Justice Department memo.
Enter Ghislaine Maxwell: Two AI images that circulated on Facebook and Threads purport to show two young girls with Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex offender and Epstein accomplice. The images are instead screenshots from an AI-generated video originally posted to TikTok by an apparent AI content creator, @CursedAICrafter.
Attacked on both sides: While these fake images originally spread among anti-Trump social media users, the Trump administration’s dismissal of a popular MAGA conspiracy theory has now generated similar claims among his own base.
Actually: All of the above photos were fabricated with AI, according to multiple detection tools.
Although Trump has been photographed smiling with Epstein at multiple social events, there are no known authentic photos of Trump and Epstein with underage girls.
And while Trump travelled on Epstein’s private jet multiple times in the 1990s, there is no evidence that he ever visited Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean.
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