On Jan. 4, 2024, amid news that court documents were about to be released revealing the names of people, some famous and some not, associated with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a photograph was shared on X (formerly Twitter) allegedly showing Epstein posing with pop star Taylor Swift. The post's description read (we translated it from Spanish):
The best thing about the Epstein case is seeing how people who attacked Kanye West turned out to be pedophiles, like Taylor Swift. The world is putting the pieces into place.
"Here is a photo of when Taylor visited Epstein in 2004," another X post captioned the photo. Another Reddit post read "Did y'all know Taylor Swift was close friends with Jeffrey Epstein?" However, we later found a comment of the post's author that suggested the pic did not show Epstein "I saw the pic on r/taylorswift and didn't read the title and for a horrifying second, I genuinely thought that was Epstein ??."
Posts from the popheadscirclejerk
community on Reddit
Reverse-image search results showed that the photograph was first shared on Dec. 16, 2021, and therefore could not show Epstein, who committed suicide in jail while awaiting trial in 2019.
In December 2021 the photograph was shared on various social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, with captions stating it showed Taylor Swift posing not with Jeffrey Epstein, but with Monte Lipman, the CEO of Republic Records, an American record label.
Taylor with Monte Lipman (CEO of Republic Records)
byu/wefoundtaylorland13 inTaylorSwift
The "Taylor Swift Switzerland" website run by a Taylor Swift fan and the "Taylor Swift Style" fashion blog also identified the man in the pic as Lipman.
In a new photo with @republic records CEO @taylorswift13 wears a #ChristyDawn dress ($198) and #LeMondeBeryl mary janes ($390). The shoes first made their appearance in the #folklore Long Pond Sessions. Shop the shoes https://t.co/vVTcyyJxLD pic.twitter.com/nLlhxz21CK
— Sarah Chapelle (@tswiftstyle) December 16, 2021
Although we were not able to find the original poster of the in-question photo, when we compared it with the photographs of Lipman available online we came to the conclusion that the viral photo showed Taylor Swift posing with Lipman. Therefore, we have rated this claim as Miscaptioned.
For reference, here's a photograph of Lipman:
(Getty Images)
If you want to understand more about the list of court documents connected with Jeffrey Epstein, we recommend reading our article with the title "Exposed: What To Know About the List of Names Connected to Jeffrey Epstein."
We have also published other fact checks regarding Epstein and Trump. For instance, we debunked a photograph allegedly depicting Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein seated together on a private plane. What's more, we investigated whether a photo authentically showed Donald Trump with two of his children alongside Jeffrey Epstein in 1993.