In April 2026, in a surprise statement to the media, US First Lady Melania Trump denied a relationship with disgraced businessman and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Describing her correspondence with aide Ghislaine Maxwell as “accidental,” Melania Trump added, “I am not Epstein’s victim. Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump.”
Soon after his statement, an old image, believed to be from a file released by the US Department of Justice in January 2026, circulated online. The alleged photo showed Melania Trump with Maxwell and unidentified girls.
A Spanish-language post from April 2026 claimed that, although Melania Trump’s relationship with Maxwell was casual, the image showed her posing with Maxwell and that the two women worked for each other’s modeling agency Melania Trump.
Snopes found no evidence of such a photo in documents released by the DOJ in April 2026. Even mainstream media outlets have not published or verified such an image.
Because we have not found definitive evidence that the image was created using artificial intelligence or otherwise, we refrain from evaluating the claim.
We started looking for the picture in question The Epstein Files DOJ made available. We found no such image in the files.
We also analyzed the image using artificial intelligence detection tools. Hive Mediation and Vision Engine It was impossible to be AI-generated. Zero-GPT A small possibility was found that the image was digitally edited in some way. (Research shows AI-detection software is imperfect and readers should consider the tool’s results with skepticism.)
It’s possible that someone edited Melania Trump’s head onto another body. In addition, the redacted women’s arms are clearly different colors than their chins and foreheads, suggesting that the bodies may have been digitally edited.
A reverse image search found no credible sources sharing the alleged photo. A higher-quality version of the image appeared as part of the thumbnails on January 30. YouTube video Keith Edwards, the YouTuber who created the video titled “Melania’s email is in the Epstein files and it is bad.,” has a history of using AI-generated images, something Which we have done Fact checked First, in videos and social media posts. We’ve 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 reads “Mar-a-Lago ’98.” We found no authentic photos of Melania Trump with Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago in 1998. However, several photos on Getty Images show Melania Trump posing with Maxwell at fashion shows. September 2000 and November 2002And with Epstein and Maxwell Kill-a-Lago in February 2000.
Snopes has fact-checked many photos of Maxwell and Epstein, including famous people real and fake Images of the disgraced financier with President Donald Trump and a Fake image With British politician Nigel Farage. We have also done a fact check real An image of Maxwell with billionaire Elon Musk, among others Claims.
Sources:
Christensen, Larke. “Don’t fall for this photo of Trump, Epstein, young women and children.” Snopes, 2 Feb. 2026, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/photo-trump-epstein-children/. Accessed 6 February 2026.
Dapcevich, Madison. “Photos of Trump with Diddy, Epstein Are Real.” Snopes, 6 Dec. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/photos-trump-combs-epstein/. Accessed 6 February 2026.
Deng, Rai. 17 Rumors About Epstein Associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Snopes, 23 July 2025, https://www.snopes.com//collections/epstein-ghislaine-maxwell-rumors/. Accessed 6 February 2026.
Deng, Rai. “Don’t fall for this image of Epstein with Nigel Farage.” Snopes, 3 Feb. 2026, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/image-epstein-nigel-farage/. Accessed 6 February 2026.
Epstein Library. Department of Justice, https://www.justice.gov/epstein. Accessed 6 February 2026.
“From left, American real estate developer Donald Trump and his…” Getty Images, 10 December 2019, https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/from-left-american-real-estate-developer-donald-trump-and-news-photo/119297790. Accessed 6 February 2026.
“Ghislaine Maxwell, Naomi Campbell, Donald Trump and Melania News…” Getty Images, 23 August 2019, https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ghislaine-maxwell-naomi-campbell-donald-trump-and-melania-news-photo16684/ accessed 6 February 2026.
Liles, Jordan. “Is the Elon Musk and Ghislaine Maxwell photo real?” Snopes, 25 Apr. 2022, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/musk-maxwell-photo/. Accessed 6 February 2026.
McShane, Julian. “Melania Trump Denies All But ‘Casual’ Relationships With Epstein & Maxwell.” MS NOW, 9 Apr. 2026, https://www.ms.now/news/melania-trump-denies-all-but-casual-ties-to-epstein-and-maxwell. Accessed 10 April 2026.
“Portrait of from left, American real estate developer Donald Trump,…” Getty Images, 6 December 2019, https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/portrait-of-from-left-american-real-estate-developer-donald-news-photo/190233. Accessed 6 February 2026.
“Portrait of from left, future married couple fashion model Melania…” Getty Images, 3 July 2020, https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/portrait-of-from-left-future-married-couple-fashion-model-news-photo/19654. Accessed 6 February 2026.
Winter, Emery. “Epstein File Photo Shows Trapdoor Opened to Water. Here’s Its Possible Purpose.” Snopes, 6 Feb. 2026, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/epstein-files-trapdoor-photo/. Accessed 6 February 2026.
