In April 2026, in a surprise statement to the media, U.S. first lady Melania Trump denied ties to disgraced businessman and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Describing her correspondence with his associate Ghislaine Maxwell as "casual," Melania Trump added, "I am not Epstein's victim. Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump."
Soon after her statement, an old image, supposedly from files the U.S. Department of Justice released in January 2026, spread online. The alleged photograph appeared to show Melania Trump with Maxwell and unidentified girls.
One Spanish-language post from April 2026 claimed that, even though Melania Trump said her relationship with Maxwell was casual, the image showed her posing alongside Maxwell and that the two women knew each other through the modeling agency Melania Trump worked for.
Snopes found no evidence of such a photograph in the documents the DOJ released as of April 2026. Mainstream media outlets have also not published or authenticated such an image.
Because we have not found definitive proof that the image was generated using artificial intelligence or otherwise fabricated, we've refrained from rating the claim.
We began searching for the image in question by combing through the Epstein files the DOJ made available. We found no such image in the files.
We also analyzed the image using artificial intelligence detection tools. Hive Moderation and Sight Engine determined it was unlikely to be AI-generated. Zero-GPT found a small likelihood that the image was digitally edited in some way. (Research shows AI-detection software is imperfect and readers should consider the tools' results with skepticism.)
It is possible that someone edited Melania Trump's head onto another body. Additionally, the redacted women's arms have markedly different color shades than their chins and foreheads, suggesting the bodies may have been digitally edited.
A reverse image search found no credible sources sharing the purported photograph. The highest-quality version of the image appeared on Jan. 30 as part of a thumbnail for a YouTube video titled "Melania's email is in the Epstein files and it's bad.." The YouTuber who created the video, Keith Edwards, has a history of using AI-generated images, some of which we've fact-checked before, in videos and social media posts. We have reached out to Edwards to learn more about the image allegedly showing Melania Trump with Maxwell and will update this post accordingly.
(YouTube user Keith Edwards)
A label on the purported Polaroid photo in the screenshot read "Mar-a-Lago '98." We found no authenticated photographs of Melania Trump with Maxwell in Mar-a-Lago in 1998. However, several photographs on Getty Images show Melania Trump posing with Maxwell at fashion shows in September 2000 and November 2002, and with Epstein and Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago in February 2000.
Snopes has fact-checked numerous images of Maxwell and Epstein with prominent people, including real and fake images of the disgraced financier alongside President Donald Trump and a fake image alongside British politician Nigel Farage. We have also fact-checked a real image of Maxwell with billionaire Elon Musk, among other claims.