Fact Check: Fake photo shows Ghislaine Maxwell with US Magistrate Bruce Reinhart
Claim:
A picture shows Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell massaging the foot of Florida Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, the man who signed off on the warrant allowing the FBI to search U.S. President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022.
Rating:
A rumor that circulated online in May 2025 claimed a photo showed Bruce Reinhart, a U.S. magistrate judge for the Southern District of Florida, on an airplane receiving a foot massage from Jeffrey Epstein associate and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.
Politico reported Reinhart signed off on the warrant allowing federal agents to search President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Aug. 8, 2022. Months later, in June 2023, photos from the search made public in an unsealed indictment showed boxes, allegedly filled with documents of a classified or otherwise sensitive nature, stacked in locations like a ballroom stage and in a bathroom next to a toilet and shower.
For example, numerous users shared this rumor on Facebook (archived), iFunny.co (archived), Instagram (archived), Truth Social (archived) and (archived) X (archived). Many of the posts displayed a text caption reading in part, "They are all connected. All of them." Memes also showed text misspelling Maxwell's name, reading, "Judge Bruce Reinhart who signed the search warrant for Mar-a-Lago and Giselle Maxwell."
(Image courtesy of @CharlieK_news/X)
However, the picture did not show Reinhart with Maxwell on an airplane. As The Associated Press and other news media outlets reported, an unknown user — possibly a person using the handle @what.i.meme.to.say — doctored the photo by combining two different images.
Reuters reported its fact-check team conducted a reverse image search, showing the original photograph featured Epstein, a convicted sex offender, not Reinhart. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in New York, according to an autopsy.
(Image courtesy of Snopes Illustration)
The picture of Reinhart shown in the doctored image came from a 2017 post on his personal Facebook profile. As of this writing, he or another person managing his account either removed the post or changed its privacy settings, making it inaccessible to the public. Snopes did not locate a working archived version of the post's page.
The inspiration for a user to create the fake picture possibly originated from Reinhart once serving as a "defense attorney on behalf of individuals connected to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein," according to Politico. Citing the Miami Herald, Politico reported Reinhart once defended "pilots for Epstein, his scheduler and a woman who had been described by some of Epstein's victims as his sex slave."
Bekiempis, Victoria. "Jeffrey Epstein Charged with Federal Sex Trafficking Crimes." The Guardian, 8 July 2019. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/08/jeffrey-epstein-sex-trafficking-charges-court.
Broadwater, Luke. "Search of Trump's Florida Residence Signals Depth of Federal Investigation." The New York Times, 9 Aug. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/08/09/us/trump-fbi-search-news.
Fineout, Gary. Judge Who Approved FBI's Mar-a-Lago Search Represented Clients Linked to Jeffrey Epstein. 9 Aug. 2022, https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/09/judge-mar-a-lago-epstein-00050739.
Hymes, Clare. Jury Finds Ghislaine Maxwell Guilty on Charges Tied to Jeffrey Epstein's Sex Trafficking Ring. CBS News, 30 Dec. 2021, https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/ghislaine-maxwell-verdict-2021-12-29/.
Medical Examiner Confirms Epstein Death a Suicide by Hanging. 16 Aug. 2019, https://www.snopes.com/ap/2019/08/16/medical-examiner-confirms-epstein-death-a-suicide-by-hanging/.
"Photo Altered to Include Judge Who Approved Mar-a-Lago Warrant." The Associated Press, 16 Aug. 2022, https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-altered-photo-bruce-reinhart-ghislaine-maxwell-637299276311.
Reuters Fact Check. "Fact Check-Image of Federal Magistrate Sitting across from Ghislaine Maxwell Is Digitally Altered." Reuters, 11 Aug. 2022, https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-maxwell-reinhart-idUSL1N2ZN2HC.
Trump Says FBI Searched Estate in Major Escalation of Probe. 9 Aug. 2022, https://www.snopes.com/ap/2022/08/09/trump-says-fbi-searched-estate-in-major-escalation-of-probe/.
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