After a New York judge unsealed documents in a court case related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, social media posts purported to have the full scoop.
"Confirmed visitors to Epstein Island 12/21/23," read a Jan. 3 Facebook post that then listed 166 people, many of them celebrities and world figures. President Joe Biden. Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Singers Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Rihanna. Actors Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. The list went on.
"The Epstein List is Finally Out," a Jan. 4 Instagram post declared as video scrolled through the same list.
(Screenshot from Instagram)
Turns out, much of this 166-name claim isn’t new and isn’t connected to the thousands of pages of documents the court released Jan. 3, Jan. 4, Jan. 5, Jan. 8 and Jan. 9.
We found nearly identical lists shared in 2020 and as late as Dec. 31.
The previously redacted or sealed documents stemmed from a 2015 defamation lawsuit filed by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, against Epstein’s former girlfriend and associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.
The records include letters from attorneys; transcripts of depositions with Maxwell, Giuffre and Johanna Sjoberg, who accused Epstein of abuse; and more, including emails from the involved parties that were released in discovery.
Using copies of the court documents that USA Today compiled on Document Cloud, PolitiFact looked up each name on this viral list to see whether it was mentioned. If we found a match, we reviewed the context in which the person was mentioned. We also looked at news stories and other documents — including Epstein’s already public address book and flight logs — to get a more complete picture of the list’s accuracy.
Answer: The list is not accurate. One-hundred and twenty-nine of the 166 people listed are not mentioned on any of the newly unsealed documents. Perusing Epstein’s private jet flight logs and his address book that were already publicly available, we found that 99 of the names were not on the flight logs, and 131 of them were not in the address book. (View our findings in this spreadsheet.)
Among those on the list who are not mentioned in the documents: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; Obama; former first lady Michelle Obama; Beyoncé; Lady Gaga; Rihanna; Streep and Hanks.
Others on the list are mentioned once, and not in an incriminating way. For example, attorneys in documents named architect Ed Tuttle as a potential witness in the case. Still others on the list, such as actor Alec Baldwin, comedian Jimmy Kimmel and television personality Chrissy Teigen, have known of claims associating them with Epstein and have denied knowing the sex offender. None of them were mentioned in the documents.
Some names did feature prominently in the new records, including well-known figures whose relationships with Epstein have been widely reported.
@politifact Replying to @xxdoodlesxx1 This viral “Epstein list” with people such as Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Beyoncé and Lady Gaga isn’t accurate. Here’s how we checked it. #epsteinlist #factcheck #fyp #learnontiktok ♬ Lofi hip hop Lofi(885430) - Enokido
Maxwell, for example, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in what the federal prosecutors described as "a scheme to sexual exploit and abuse multiple minor girls with Jeffrey Epstein over the course of a decade." Others whose names appear frequently in the document have not faced prosecution. And mere mention of one’s name in the court case records does not mean that person is legally implicated.
