In February 2026, a claim circulated online that countries outside the US, such as France, had released unedited images from US Department of Justice files on deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Some of the posts allegedly included pictures of US President Donald Trump with underage girls.
The DOJ began releasing batches of files in December 2025 after a crescendo of public pressure for access. Both the text and images in the files were heavily redacted, to protect the identities of the survivors, according to a notice in the DOJ’s online library of the files.
Claims that other countries had access to unedited files spread across multiple platforms (Archive, Archive), racking up millions of views. Dozens of users in the comments believed the claim.
The earliest post (archived) we found of the claim appeared on February 5, 2026 — before a small group of US lawmakers reviewed the undisclosed Epstein files. Claims that other countries had released the unredacted files appeared alongside two photos that appeared to show Trump with two minor girls in a post that read, “Warning: It’s worse than you can imagine. Other countries are releasing the Epstein files unexpectedly. It’s bad, man.”
(thread user @bodycoachderek)
Other accounts more specifically claimed that France had released unsolicited files. “Trump may control the US DOJ, but other countries like France have an unedited version, “one X post (archived) has read almost 4 million views.
There was no evidence that countries outside the US, such as France, had official access to the unedited Epstein files and released them, revealing previously unseen images.
We reached out to the DOJ seeking comment on whether the department has released any files to other countries and the department The official replied, “The department has not shared the files with any nation, and those presidential photos are fake.”
Snopes also reached out to the French Ministry of Justice and did not immediately receive a response. We will update this story if we do. Until then, we leave this claim unassessed.
There was no evidence that the two photos circulated with the claim, both of which appeared to show Trump with young girls, were included in any Epstein file release. Both pictures had signs of artificial intelligence generation.
Have other countries released the unredacted Epstein files?
The only evidence we found of the claim emerged from unreliable, unofficial accounts on social media. If nations other than the US, such as France, were releasing the unredacted Epstein files, credible news media outlets would report the news.
A direct Google search on whether France has released the unredacted Epstein files failed to reveal relevant results. The top results came mainly from US lawmakers reviewing unredacted files and European leaders facing their own investigations into ties to Epstein. A search replacing “France” with “Europe” showed similar results.
Image shows Google search results
(google)
The Threads account that posted the earliest version of the claim that we could find looked suspicious – it didn’t seem to have any credibility in an official capacity. The account appeared to belong to a fitness coach near Seattle, and the user’s profile and posts were highly politically charged. Many indicated uses of artificial intelligence. We’ve reached out to the account to seek comment on the claims and the origin of the images and will update this story if we receive a response.
In short, the claim that France had access to the unredacted files was baseless. The claim was spread by unreliable accounts and neither credible news media outlets nor political leaders made any official statements about the claim.
There is no evidence that the photos of Trump with the girls were not authentic
The two images first appeared together online in February 2026, and as far as Snopes was able to determine, they may have been generated by AI.
They had classic features of the AI generation such as unnatural light patterns, abnormally smooth skin and irregular facial features. For example, a magnified view of the girl pictured above makes one eye appear larger and more defined than the other, and the shadowy patch extends unnaturally out of her face.
(thread user @bodycoachderek)
The second image appeared to be a screenshot of a TikTok post, but Snopes was unable to find the original image on TikTok. The children in the picture were wearing identical white clothes and haircuts, indicating a possible conformity with the general AI-generation prompt. Even the shadows on the child’s hair in the bottom photo looked exactly like the mirror – further proof of the AI-generation.
(thread user @bodycoachderek)
In yoga…
There is no evidence countries outside the US, such as France, released the unredacted Epstein files. The DOJ told Snopes in an email that it “Share files with any nation.”
Several AI images depicting Trump with young girls have circulated over the years, and while we couldn’t definitively determine whether the images were AI-generated or AI-altered, two of the images had clear visual signs of AI.
Sources:
“Timeline of Jeffrey Epstein investigation and fight to release government files”. PBS News6 Feb. 2026, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/a-timeline-of-the-jeffrey-epstein-investigation-and-the-fight-to-make-the-governments-files-public.
Gould, Michael. Lawmakers review unsolicited Epstein files. 9 Feb. 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/02/09/us/president-trump-news#9360f606-e733-58f5-bba6-f523b6a130c5.
https://www.justice.gov/epstein. Accessed 11 February 2026.
Pericook, Taija. “7 Rumored Images of Trump With Underage Girls We Debunked”. Snopes19 Nov. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//collections/photo-trump-girls-rumors/.
“UK police consult with criminal prosecutors over Andrew-Epstein allegations”. NBC News11 Feb. 2026, https://www.nbcnews.com/world/united-kingdom/uk-police-consult-criminal-prosecutors-andrew-epstein-allegations-rcna258588.
