Jeffrey Epstein's trial and associates have long been fruitful ground for misinformation, including baseless claims about his flight log and a bevy of altered photos wrongly linking Epstein to high-profile figures.

A new crop of false claims began circulating Jan. 3 after 943 pages of Epstein-related records were unsealed in U.S. District Court in New York.

More: Clinton and Trump are named in Jeffrey Epstein documents, no wrongdoing alleged

More: Jeffrey Epstein document release highlights his sprawling connections across states

Here's a roundup of the latest Epstein fact checks from the USA TODAY Fact-Check Team, along with some highlights from our archive:

More from the Fact-Check Team: How we pick and research claims | Email newsletter | Facebook page

Claims after documents were unsealed Jan. 3

Claim: Former President Barack Obama was with Jeffrey Epstein in a boat with a girl

Our rating: False

Obama was not with Epstein in the boat. The photo shows Obama with the actor George Clooney during a boat ride in Italy in June 2019. Epstein is not present in this photo. Read more

Claim: Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin are named in the Jeffrey Epstein documents

Our rating: False

Neither Griffin nor Cooper are listed in any of the documents related to the late financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Read more

Claim: Jeffrey Epstein documents and Anthony Weiner laptop prove Hillary Clinton visited Epstein Island 6 times

Our rating: False

The Epstein documents unsealed in January don't contain any proof that Clinton visited the island. She was listed as a possible witness, not accused of any wrongdoing. The emails found on former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner's laptop are unrelated and were unsealed back in 2017. Read more

Claim: Photo shows Taylor Swift posing with Jeffrey Epstein

Our rating: Altered

The man shown in the photo is music executive Monte Lipman, not Jeffrey Epstein. The image was first shared in 2021, two years after Epstein died by suicide. Read more

Claim: Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama are among more than 160 confirmed visitors to Epstein Island

Our rating: False

The list is fabricated. It names people who do not appear in any records from multiple court cases related to alleged sex trafficking by Epstein as well as some who have acknowledged meeting Epstein but have never been proven to have visited his island. It also omits at least one person who publicly acknowledged visiting the island. Read more

Claim: Rep. Adam Schiff visited Epstein Island 78 times

Our rating: False

There's no evidence Schiff visited the island. His name doesn't appear on any of the released documents relating to Epstein. Read more

Claim: Oprah Winfrey's private jet visited Jeffrey Epstein's island 11 times, students at her school were kidnapped

Our rating: False

There is no evidence Winfrey’s jet was on the late disgraced financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s private island, nor is she listed on his flight logs. It was another school, not Winfrey’s, that had a mass kidnapping of students. Read more

Claim: Jeffrey Epstein documents describe sexual ‘proclivities’ of late physicist Stephen Hawking

Our rating: Altered

The image is fabricated. The exchange does not appear anywhere in the Epstein documents released Jan. 3. It originated from an account on X, formerly Twitter, that makes clear the clips and images it shares are not authentic. Read more

Claim: Perry High School shooting was a 'false flag' to distract from Jeffrey Epstein documents

Our rating: False

There is no evidence the shooting at Perry High School has anything to do with court documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. A sixth-grader was killed and the 17-year-old shooter died from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said. Read more

Claim: Image shows Tom Hanks fled to Israel after the release of Jeffrey Epstein's list

Our rating: Altered

The video of Hanks dates back to 2014 when he attended a wedding, and a CNN spokesperson said the news chyron appearing with it is a fabrication. There's no evidence the actor fled the U.S. Read more

Claim: Documents unsealed Jan. 3 confirm Donald Trump didn't visit Jeffrey Epstein’s properties

Our rating: False

The excerpt presented as breaking news was unsealed in 2019, not in 2024, as the post claims. The woman’s statements that she did not remember seeing Trump at those locations are anecdotes from a single witness, not proof he did not visit them. Read more

Claim: Image shows Jimmy Kimmel is mentioned in the Jeffrey Epstein documents

Our rating: Altered

The image is fabricated. Kimmel’s name does not appear anywhere in the documents released on Jan. 3. Kimmel has said he has never had an association with Epstein. Read more

Altered images linking officials to Epstein

Claim: Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Gates tweeted about Prince Philip’s death

Our rating: Satire

The image was posted by a popular meme page. Epstein died in 2019, and there is no record of this thread on Twitter. Read more

Claim: Image shows the Obama family vacationing on Jeffrey Epstein’s island

Our rating: Altered

The original photo shows the Obama family vacationing in Hawaii. The blue and white striped building was edited into the image. Read more

Claim: An image shows Kamala Harris and Jeffrey Epstein standing together

Our rating: Altered

The original image shows Harris standing next to Emhoff at a 2015 black-tie event in Los Angeles. Read more

Claim: A photo shows President Joe Biden posing with Jeffrey Epstein

Our rating: Altered

The image was created using two separate photos of Biden and Epstein, neither of which shows one man posing with the other. Read more

Claim: Photo shows Trump dancing with a young girl on Jeffrey Epstein's island in 1989

Our rating: Altered

Multiple computer science experts told USA TODAY the image was generated by artificial intelligence. Trump's appearance in the image does not match his likeness in real footage from 1989. Read more

Claim: Hillary Clinton posted a tweet about vaccination that referenced Jeffrey Epstein

Our rating: False

There is no record that it was posted by Clinton's verified account. Read more

False claims about who is on Epstein's flight log

Claim: Celebrities haven't addressed Epstein flight logs

Our rating: False

While there are some high-profile celebrities and politicians listed in Epstein's flight records, Chrissy Teigen, Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres are not. Multiple celebrities who were actually listed in Epstein's flight records have publicly addressed their relationship with him. Additionally, although Teigen is not listed in any of the records, she has publicly addressed the false accusations. Read more

Claim: Matthew Perry was killed because he was on the list for Epstein Island

Our rating: False

Police have said there was no evidence of foul play in Perry's death. Nor is there evidence that he visited Epstein Island, the retreat used in connection with a long-running sex trafficking operation. Perry's name does not appear on the flight log of Jeffrey Epstein's private plane. Read more

Claim: Obama's Medal of Freedom recipients appear on Epstein's flight logs

Our rating: False

Bill Gates is the only person in the video whose name appears on Jeffrey Epstein's flight logs, which show he flew once in 2013 with the late disgraced financier and convicted sex offender. Read more

Claim: Screenshot of a CNN graphic shows Justin Trudeau as a passenger on Jeffrey Epstein's plane

Our rating: Altered

The image is altered. The original graphic that CNN aired was changed to replace Sen. George Mitchell with Trudeau. Read more

Claim: Chris Wallace visited Jeffrey Epstein's island

Our rating: False

Numerous reports show that the photos are of Chris Wallace and George Clooney in Italy. There is no evidence that Wallace visited Jeffrey Epstein's island in the Virgin Islands. Read more

False claims about Epstein

Claim: Jeffrey Epstein is alive and hiding in New Mexico

Our rating: False

The post offers no evidence that Epstein is alive. Multiple official sources, including Epstein's lawyers, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and New York City's chief medical examiner, have confirmed his death. Read more

Claim: Jeffrey Epstein’s former lawyer was the judge who signed off on the Mar-a-Lago search warrant

Our rating: False

Judge Bruce Reinhart told the Miami Herald he represented Epstein employees, not Epstein. Read more

Claim: The same doctor autopsied JFK, MLK, Jeffrey Epstein and George Floyd

Our rating: False

Pathologist Michael Baden has ties to all four investigations, but he performed an autopsy only on Floyd. He reviewed archival evidence for JFK and MLK's cases and consulted for Epstein's. Read more

Claims about Ghislaine Maxwell

Claim: Sex crimes by dozens of public officials are connected to Ghislaine Maxwell, an associate of Jeffrey Epstein

Our rating: Partly false

While the names and offenses we researched on the list were generally accurate, connecting the list to Maxwell is not. The nature of many of the crimes cited make the involvement of a third-party like Maxwell unlikely or impossible, and some of the incidents even occurred after the lawsuit that supposedly revealed them. But most notably, elements of this list have been circulating online since at least 2006. Read more

Claim: Ghislaine Maxwell sentenced to 10 years in prison

Our rating: False

Maxwell at this point had been convicted, but she wasn't yet sentenced. Read more.

Claim: The NYC medical officer who autopsied Epstein resigned on first day of Maxwell trial

Our rating: Missing context

A spokesperson for the New York City chief medical examiner's office told USA TODAY chief medical examiner Barbara Sampson announced her resignation internally a week prior to her public resignation on Nov. 29, the day the Maxwell trial began. There's no evidence the two events are related. Read more

Claim: Press and spectators aren't allowed at Ghislaine Maxwell trial

Our rating: False

An order by the trial's presiding judge says that both press and the general public will have "substantial" access to the actual courtroom and overflow rooms livestreaming the proceeding. Read more

Claim: Image shows Ghislaine Maxwell and Chief Justice John Roberts

Our rating: False

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. Read more

Claim: A list shows Ghislaine Maxwell's 'co-conspirators' in a federal criminal case

Our rating: False

The document is not related to Maxwell's current case. It was filed as part of a 2020 civil lawsuit by a Texas woman who claimed she was trafficked by Epstein and other famous individuals and companies. The case was thrown out when a court determined the woman's claims were unfounded. Read more

Claim: An image shows Bruce Reinhart with Ghislaine Maxwell

Our rating: Altered

The original image shows Maxwell rubbing Epstein's foot, and it was released in 2021 amid her sex-trafficking trial. A 2017 photo of Reinhart watching a football game was edited into the image in the Facebook post in place of Epstein. Read more.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jeffrey Epstein list: Fact checking false and misleading claims