Fact check: Ghislaine Maxwell, French modeling agent seen together in viral photo

McKenzie Sadeghi, USA TODAY
·4 min read

The claim: Image shows Ghislaine Maxwell and Chief Justice John Roberts

Social media users are attempting to link Chief Justice John Roberts to Jeffrey Epstein by sharing a viral photo purporting to show Roberts next to Ghislaine Maxwell, longtime associate of Epstein.

The image allegedly shows the two sitting next to each other on a couch with the caption, "Chief Justice John Roberts and Ghislaine Maxwell."

"This explains an awful lot!" one user wrote in a version of the claim that appears to have been deleted. Similar versions of the claim have been posted to Facebook by several users with hundreds of shares.

USA TODAY reached out to the users behind the posts for comment.

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Photo shows French modeling agent

A reverse Google image search reveals that the man in the photo is French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, not Roberts.

"French agent Jean-Luc Brunel and Ghislaine Maxwell on Jeffrey Epstein’s island in the mid-2000s," reads the caption of the image, which is visible on The Canadian and the Teller Report.

Brunel, a frequent companion of Epstein, was detained on suspicion of sex crimes, the Associated Press reported.

French investigators became interested in Brunel a year ago when Virginia Giuffre, one of the women who accused Epstein of sexual abusing her, alleged that she also had sex with Brunel, USA TODAY reported.

Maxwell was charged with helping enable Epstein's child sex trafficking operation and in July pleaded not guilty to helping him recruit and groom underage girls for sex, USA TODAY reported.

On Friday, U.S. prosecutors said Maxwell should remain in jail and urged a federal judge to reject her proposed $28.5 million bail package, according to Reuters. She faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted at her scheduled trial in July 2021.

Epstein was found dead in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019. He had pleaded not guilty to charges of drug trafficking and allegedly sexually abusing dozens of underage girls in New York and Florida. His death was ruled a suicide.

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No evidence of link to Epstein

The social media claims follow a series of allegations made by attorney Lin Wood, who criticized Roberts for the Supreme Court's decision to throw out a bid to overturn presidential election results, Newsweek reported.

Wood suggested in a tweet that Roberts is the "John Roberts" that appears in flight logs from Epstein's private jet, however, there is no evidence that Epstein and Roberts had any sort of relationship, according to Newsweek.

Fox News Chief White House Correspondent John Roberts also took to Twitter in 2019 to deny ever being on Epstein's aircraft after being accused of being on the flight logs because of his name.

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Our rating: False

The claim that an image shows Chief Justice John Roberts and Ghislaine Maxwell together is FALSE, based on our research. The photo shows French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel who was recently arrested on suspicion of sex crimes. There is no evidence that Roberts had ties to Maxwell or Epstein.

Our fact-check sources:

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Ghislaine Maxwell, French modeling agent in viral photo