Jeffrey Epstein was a wealthy American investor and convicted sex offender. Utilizing high-level connections built with influential people, he was involved in the sexual abuse and trafficking of teenage girls. In 2019, he was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in the United States. However, before the judicial process could begin, his hanging body was recovered from a New York jail. Epstein’s death sparked widespread global debate and various conspiracy theories about whether it was suicide or homicide. Later, the US Department of Justice officially stated that Epstein committed suicide. Epstein-related documents had been released in limited scope at various times before. However, under the ‘Epstein Files Transparency Act’ in 2026, the US Department of Justice released the largest scope of documents to date. It includes nearly 3.5 million pages of documents, over two thousand videos, and nearly one hundred eighty thousand photos. This massive database related to Epstein is known as the ‘Epstein Files’. After the release of these documents, discussion and criticism began worldwide. Centering the Epstein files, a photo of a child sitting on the lap of former US President Barack Obama is being circulated on social media with the claim – this is related to the Epstein Files incident.
See some posts circulated on Facebook: here (Archive), here (Archive), here (Archive), here (Archive), here (Archive).
Fact Check
The Rumor Scanner team’s investigation reveals that the circulated photo is not from Jeffrey Epstein’s island and the said photo is not related to the Epstein Files incident. In reality, the circulated photo was taken in December 2015 in Washington D.C. with former US President Barack Obama’s niece, Savita Ng.
During the investigation, a photo published on December 4, 2015, was found on the website of the photo archive company Alamy. The discussed photo matches the said photo.
Regarding the photo, Alamy stated that this is a picture of the then US President Barack Obama cuddling his niece Savita Ng during a visit by his sister Maya Soetoro-Ng and her family to the Oval Office of the White House in Washington D.C. on December 4, 2015.
Flickr and Imago have also published the photo with the same information.
That is, the photo is not related to Jeffrey Epstein’s island or the Epstein Files.
Therefore, a photo of Barack Obama cuddling his niece in the Oval Office in Washington D.C. in 2015 is being circulated recently regarding the Epstein Files issue; which is completely false.