Fact Check: Fake Photo Shows Kamala Harris with Jeffrey Epstein

Claim:

A photo authentically shows U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris posing with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Rating:

A widely debunked photo of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris posing next to now-deceased financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein made the rounds yet again across social media in the summer of 2024.

On July 21, 2024, the same day President Joe Biden announced he was stepping aside for Harris to run for president, an X user posted the photo with the caption, "Make this photo famous."

In addition to X, the digitally altered photo was spread on other platforms like Facebook and Reddit.

In 2021, we reported on the same image and found that it was digitally altered to overlay Epstein's head onto the body of Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff. The original image, owned by Getty Images, was taken at a 2015 event in Los Angeles:

(Getty Images)

Epstein's face was likely added from a 2006 mugshot taken by the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office in Florida.

Several other news sites did their own fact checks of the image in question and found the same result, including USA Today, Reuters and The Associated Press: Epstein's face had been edited onto the body of Emhoff.

Sources:

Jeffery Epstein Mugshot. Palm Beach Sherrif's Office, July 2006, https://archive.is/jwnC9.

Kochi, Sudiksha. "Fact Check: Image of Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff Altered to Show Jeffrey Epstein." USA TODAY, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/09/08/fact-check-altered-image-shows-jeffrey-epstein-next-kamala-harris/5672684001/. Accessed 22 July 2024.

MacGuill, Dan. "No, That Picture of Kamala Harris with Jeffrey Epstein Is Not Real." Snopes, 31 Aug. 2021, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/kamala-harris-jeffrey-epstein-pic/.

"Photo Edited to Show Kamala Harris with Jeffrey Epstein." AP News, 30 Aug. 2021, https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-961965727698.

"Photo of Kamala Harris with Jeffrey Epstein Is Digitally Altered." Reuters, 30 Aug. 2021. www.reuters.com, https://www.reuters.com/article/fact-check/photo-of-kamala-harris-with-jeffrey-epstein-is-digitally-altered-idUSL1N2Q1292/.

Snopes Staff. "Biden Dropped Out of Presidential Race, Endorsed Kamala Harris?" Snopes, 21 July 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/biden-resigns-election/.