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Images circulated online in February 2026 allegedly depicting U.S. President Donald Trump with young girls, which social media users claimed (archived) were unredacted images from the Department of Justice’s Epstein files released in countries outside the U.S., such as France.
The DOJ began releasing batches of the files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in December 2025 following a surge of public pressure for access. Both text and images in the files were heavily redacted, which according to a notice on the DOJ’s online library of the files was to protect survivors’ identities.
The claim that other countries had access to unredacted files spread on multiple platforms (archived, archived), racking up millions of views. Dozens of users in the comments appeared to believe the claim.
The earliest post (archived) of the claim we found appeared on Feb. 5, 2026 — days before a small group of U.S. lawmakers reviewed unredacted Epstein files. The claim that other countries were releasing unredacted files appeared alongside two images allegedly showing Trump with two young girls in the post, which read, “WARNING: this is way worse than you can imagine. Other countries are releasing the Epstein files unredacted. It’s bad, folks.”
(Threads user @bodycoachderek)
Other accounts more specifically claimed France released unredacted files. “Trump can control the US DOJ, but other countries like France have the unredacted version,” said one X post (archived) with nearly 4 million views.
There was no evidence countries outside the U.S., such as France, have official access to unredacted Epstein files and have released them, revealing previously unseen images.
We reached out to the DOJ seeking comment on whether the department had released any files to other countries, and a department official responded, “The department has not shared the files with any nation, and those photos of the President 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’ve left this claim unrated.
There was also no evidence that either of the two images that circulated with the claim, both of which appeared to show Trump with young girls, were ever included in any Epstein file releases. Both images had signs of artificial intelligence generation.
Have other countries released unredacted Epstein files?
The only evidence we found of the claim appeared on social media from unreliable, unofficial accounts. If nations other than the U.S., such as France, were releasing unredacted Epstein files, credible news media outlets would have reported the news.
A straightforward Google search regarding whether France released unredacted Epstein files failed to reveal pertinent results. Top results were primarily related to U.S. lawmakers reviewing unredacted files and European leaders facing their own investigations for ties to Epstein. A search replacing “France” with “Europe” revealed similar results.
(Google)
The Threads account that posted the earliest version of the claim we could find appeared dubious — it did not appear to have any credibility in an official capacity. The account appeared to belong to a fitness coach based near Seattle, and the user’s profile and posts were highly politically charged. Several indicated use of artificial intelligence. We contacted the account seeking comment on the claim and images’ origin and will update this story if we receive a response.
In short, claims that France had access to unredacted files were groundless. The claim spread from unreliable accounts and neither credible news media outlets nor political leaders made any official statements regarding the claim.
No evidence images of Trump with girls were authentic
The two images first appeared online together in February 2026, and as far as Snopes was able to determine, they were likely to have been generated with AI.
They contained classic hallmarks of AI generation such as unnatural light patterns, abnormally smooth skin and irregular facial features. For example, a magnified look at the girl pictured above reveals one eye appears bigger and more defined than the other eye, and a shadowed blur extends outward from her face unnaturally.
(Threads 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 pictured wore similar white dresses and haircuts, indicating possible conformity with a general AI-generation prompt. Shadows in the child’s hair pictured in the lower image also appeared to exactly mirror themselves — further evidence of AI-generation.
(Threads user @bodycoachderek)
In sum …
There is no evidence countries outside the U.S., such as France, released unredacted Epstein files. The DOJ said in an email to Snopes that it did not “share the files with any nation.”
Many AI images depicting Trump with young girls have circulated over the years, and while we were unable to definitively determine the images were AI-generated or AI-altered, the two images contained clear visual indications of AI.
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Taija PerryCook
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