In early December 2025, social media posts claimed that someone had sued U.S. President Donald Trump and tech billionaires Elon Musk and Bill Gates for $310 million, alleging that the three had participated in a sex trafficking scheme “identical” to the crimes of the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Snopes readers also wrote in asking for more information on the claim.
We found that the lawsuit was real and had been filed in Palm Beach County, Florida, on Nov. 24, 2025. The website Boca News Now, which describes itself as “South Florida’s leading hyper-local news website,” reported on the lawsuit. However, the American justice system allows people to sue for basically any reason — that does not mean the lawsuit has any merit. The suit did not appear to contain legitimate claims, based on Snopes’ review of it.
The defendant in this case filed the lawsuit pro se, meaning without a licensed attorney representing her. Such a dramatic lawsuit being filed without an attorney to navigate the complexities of the legal system is a large red flag. Palm Beach County’s records of the lawsuit showed that the woman suing had incorrectly filled out the legal forms, and two rulings by the judge from Dec. 1 and 2 noted that the accused parties had not properly been served the documents.
Although the name of the woman suing was ostensibly confidential, it was visible in several documents and motions. Snopes found two other lawsuits filed by the same woman — one against Gates in Maricopa County, Arizona, and one against Musk and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Essex County, New Jersey.
Reading the details of all three lawsuits made it apparent that the woman did not provide evidence to support her claims, a number of which were outlandish. For instance, the lawsuit that included Trump connected the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse with the birth of the woman’s daughter, which reportedly happened on the same day, with the implication that this was an intentional act to terrorize the plaintiff. It also included an accusation that Trump had funded the Israeli military in order to prevent the woman’s supposed invention, a non-hormonal contraceptive gel, from being used for treatment in the Gaza Strip.
The story may have been shared widely because its sensationalist claims of conspiracy, especially given the financial and political power of the men being sued. Additionally, Trump and Gates both had connections to Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. According to news reports, Gates’ relationship with Epstein was one of the reasons his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, began meeting with divorce lawyers. Trump was friends with Epstein for many years until they had a falling out. In 2025, Musk publicly broke with Trump after claiming the president’s name appeared in Epstein’s files.
Sources
Dealing with pro Se Litigants: A Judge’s Dilemma | Illinois State Bar Association. https://www.isba.org/sections/bench/newsletter/2018/01/dealingwithproselitigantsajudgesdilemma. Accessed 5 Dec. 2025.
Donald Trump Sued Over “Epstein Identical” Trafficking In Palm Beach County – BocaNewsNow.Com. 2 Dec. 2025, https://bocanewsnow.com/2025/12/02/donald-trump-sued-over-epstein-identical-trafficking-in-palm-beach-county/.
“Elon Musk’s Ties to Jeffrey Epstein Explained.” Newsweek, 6 June 2025, https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-jeffrey-epstein-family-ghislaine-maxwell-trump-2082228.
Liles, Jordan. “Yes, Musk Alleged Trump Appears in the Epstein Files.” Snopes, 5 June 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/elon-musk-epstein-trump/.
Loose Wire on Containership Dali Leads to Blackouts and Contact with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge. https://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/NR20251118.aspx. Accessed 4 Dec. 2025.
Quintanilla, Victor D., et al. “The Signaling Effect of Pro Se Status.” Law & Social Inquiry, vol. 42, no. 4, Fall 2017, pp. 1091–121, https://law.indiana.edu/publications/faculty/2020/vdq-signaling-effect.pdf.
“Self-Represented Litigants and the Pro Se Crisis.” Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, https://publications.lawschool.cornell.edu/jlpp/2023/11/04/self-represented-litigants-and-the-pro-se-crisis/. Accessed 5 Dec. 2025.
Staff, Al Jazeera. “Melinda Gates Met Divorce Lawyers When Epstein Ties Revealed: WSJ.” Al Jazeera, https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/5/10/melinda-gates-discussed-divorcing-bill-over-epstein-ties-wsj. Accessed 4 Dec. 2025.
“The Facts and Timeline of Trump and Epstein’s Falling Out.” PBS News, 31 July 2025, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/the-facts-and-timeline-of-trump-and-epsteins-falling-out.
Trump Slapped with Massive Lawsuit Alleging “Epstein-Identical” Trafficking Operation – Raw Story. https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2674362253/. Accessed 4 Dec. 2025.
Trump Slapped with Massive Lawsuit Alleging “Epstein-Identical” Trafficking Operation – Raw Story. https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2674362253/. Accessed 4 Dec. 2025.
