Fact Check: This Photo Allegedly Shows Taylor Swift with Jeffrey Epstein. Here’s the Truth.

Claim:

Photographs shared in January 2024 showed Taylor Swift posing with the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Rating:

Rating: Miscaptioned

In early January 2024, court documents were set to be released, exposing names linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In that context, the photograph surfaced on X (formerly Twitter), allegedly depicting 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 ped*ph*les, 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 😭😔.”

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.

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.

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.

Sources:

Izzo, Jack. “Exposed: What To Know About the List of Names Connected to Jeffrey Epstein.” Snopes, 2 Jan. 2024, https://www.snopes.com/news/2024/01/02/epstein-maxwell-list-explained/.

PerryCook, Taija. “Is This a Real Photo of Trump and Epstein on a Private Plane?” Snopes, 2 Jan. 2024, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-and-epstein-on-private-plane/.

—. “Were Trump and 2 of His Kids, Ivanka and Eric, Seen with Jeffrey Epstein in ’93?” Snopes, 3 Jan. 2024, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-ivanka-and-eric-with-epstein/.