In mid-July 2025, a rumor circulated online that U.S. Vice President JD Vance was the last person to see convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein alive.
For example, one Facebook user (archived) wrote: "Vance visited Epstein in his prison cell on August 10, 2019, shortly before the disgraced financier was found dead."
Variations of the claim appeared on X (archived) and elsewhere on Facebook (archived). Some posts cited the release of a "bombshell" report that allegedly said U.S. President Donald Trump "thanked Vance for visiting Epstein and promised to reward him someday, comparing him to 'the late, great Hannibal Lecter.'"
The rumor's prominence on social media led some Snopes readers to contact us via email to question its veracity.
Some people seemed to take the claim at face value. However, there was no evidence that Vance visited Epstein in prison. Likewise, a Google search produced no evidence of any credible news outlets reporting on the alleged "bombshell," which would have been widely covered if it were true.
Rather, the rumor about Vance being the last person to see Epstein alive originated with the long-running The Borowitz Report (archived), "a news satire site published since 2001," according to its author, Andy Borowitz, who also said in his bio: "I've been writing satirical news since I was eighteen."
Borowitz's Facebook post featuring the rumor also linked to a similar article on The Borowitz Report website that featured an image of Trump alongside Epstein and said: "In a bombshell report issued Monday, the Department of Justice said it has identified a man in a decades-old photograph of Jeffrey Epstein as former President Joe Biden."
The fictional story spread as Trump's Department of Justice and FBI declared that there was no long-rumored Epstein "client list" and reconfirmed Epstein's death as a suicide.
Further, Vance's old social media posts alleging that Epstein's death may have been foul play reemerged along with the news. Finally, inspiration for Borowitz's satirical piece appeared to come from a previous story about Vance meeting with Pope Francis the day before the pontiff died, sparking speculation and jokes about Vance's role in his death.
Snopes has addressed other claims about Epstein in the past, including a satirical rumor that Disney planned to turn Epstein's private island into a theme park and a true claim that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he flew on Epstein's private jet twice.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.