Editor's note: This article contains graphic descriptions of violent conduct.
In February 2026, after the U.S. Department of Justice released more than 3 million files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a claim (archived) circulated online that the files reference cannibalism and accuse Epstein or his inner social circle of engaging in "ritualistic sacrifice."
Posts on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived) and Bluesky (archived) spread the allegations. Snopes readers contacted us and searched our website for more information, using phrases such as "evidence of cannibalism in the Epstein
(Facebook user JAN Writer)
The allegations of "ritualistic sacrifice" appear in documents summarizing a purported interview between FBI officials and an anonymous man in 2019. The man claimed he witnessed "ritualistic sacrifice" and "babies being dismembered" on a yacht belonging to Epstein in 2000. According to the DOJ records, the man did not provide evidence to support his allegations.
In the alleged interview, the man did not mention cannibalism (he did mention the consumption of human feces), according to the documents. However, the phrases "cannibal" or "cannibalism" appear elsewhere in the files released by the DOJ January 2026.
The allegations against Epstein and his inner circle were unsupported by any credible evidence.
The anonymous man's interview in 2019
The man's unsubstantiated allegations of "ritualistic sacrifice" appeared in an email exchange between an apparent FBI agent and New York police detective, per the DOJ's records (the file name is "EFTA00147661" (archived)). The DOJ appeared to have removed this file from the Epstein Library after Snopes first reported this story. We contacted the department to ask why and await a reply.
The email exchange summarizes the alleged interview with the man, someone the messages call a "purported victim" of Epstein's crimes.
According to that summary, the man accused prominent people including Epstein of sexually assaulting him on a yacht in 2000. The emails said the man claimed he:
...
was a victim of a type of ritualistic sacrifice in which his feet were cut with a scimitar but left no scarring. On the yacht he witnessed babies being dismembered, their intestines removed, and individuals eating the feces from these intestines.
The interview appears again in the DOJ's documents, in a more formal summary of the same interview with the man (that file name is "EFTA01246048" (archived)). According to that file, the accuser also claimed a handful of former presidents "were present on the same yacht while all of the aforementioned acts of violence were occurring."
Both files said the man did not provide supporting or corroborating evidence for his allegations. In "EFTA00147661," one agent concluded, "At this
When we asked the FBI why it did not pursue an investigation into the man's claims, an FBI spokesperson responded via email: "Thank you for reaching out. Unfortunately, we don't have a comment."
Also, according to the DOJ's files, a former FBI special agent and Michael Moore — a former journalist whom Buzzfeed and Zachary Ellwood, an independent investigator, identified as the person behind True Pundit, a far-right conspiracy website — referred the man to the FBI for the interview.
No further details about the interview or man were available.
Mentions of cannibalism
A search of the DOJ's "Epstein Library" — a trove of more than 3 million documents released in batches since late 2025 — revealed 52 instances of the word "cannibal" and six instances of "cannibalism."
Snopes has reported extensively on claims related to the Epstein files, including the fact that they contain an unverified tip to the FBI about President Donald Trump allegedly witnessing the murder of a newborn.