Epstein files screenshot linking Trump to 14-year-old girl needs context

After the U.S. Department of Justice published a batch of records related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in December 2025, social media users began circulating a screenshot they framed as a newly “unredacted” revelation. The highlighted passage alleged that Epstein once took a 14-year-old girl to Mar-a-Lago and introduced her to the club’s owner, Donald Trump, who was elected president years later.

One Facebook post (archived) sharing the screenshot claimed: “According to the files, Epstein elbowed Trump playfully asking him, ‘This is a good one, right?’ with Trump smiling and nodding in agreement, referring to the then 14-year-old girl.” 

In the comments, the account linked to an article (archived) titled “Met in Michigan: New Epstein files reveal where he met his first victim,” which similarly described the passage as a “revelation” from the newly released records.

Other posts suggested the government had mistakenly left the passage unredacted. For instance, one X user wrote (archived), “They forgot to redact this page.” The image and its accompanying claims spread across Facebook, Threads and X.

The screenshot, however, was often shared without crucial context. While it quotes a real court document included in the December 2025 document release, it was not a newly uncovered finding — the image comes from a civil complaint filed in 2020 that had been publicly available for years. As such, it reflects a plaintiff’s allegation in litigation, not a court determination that Epstein took a 14-year-old girl to Mar-a-Lago to meet Trump.

When asked for comment on the allegation, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said: “It’s not news that President Trump knew Epstein back in the day, because he kicked him out of his club for being a creep. Despite desperate wishcasting from the Democrats, the fact remains: Donald Trump never did anything wrong.”

What the document actually is

The document at the center of the posts appears in Doe v. Indyke, a lawsuit filed in New York by a Jane Doe plaintiff against Epstein associates, which the DOJ posted on its “Epstein Library” website under the “Court Records” section.

The complaint appears as file “001.pdf”. The allegation is on Page 4 of that complaint:

The plaintiff alleged the following:

During one of Doe’s encounters with Epstein, he took her to Mar-a-Lago where he introduced her to its owner, Donald J. Trump. Introducing 14-year-old Doe to Donald J. Trump, Epstein elbowed Trump playfully asking him, referring to Doe, “This is a good one, right?” Trump smiled and nodded in agreement. They both chuckled and Doe felt uncomfortable, but, at the time, was too young to understand why.

(www.justice.gov)

The same complaint text also appears inside a separate document, “043-02.pdf,” which contains other case materials.

What we can and can’t confirm from the filing

A civil complaint is not evidence something happened, but rather one side’s allegations filed to start a lawsuit. In other words, the screenshot shows what the plaintiff claimed happened, and not what a court determined happened. Additionally, the filing’s passage does not accuse Trump of a specific crime. Rather, it describes an alleged introduction at Mar-a-Lago and the plaintiff’s reaction that she felt uncomfortable.

We did not find court findings or independent documentation in the filing itself that corroborated the allegation.

This wasn’t newly revealed in 2025

Multiple major news outlets, including the BBC, The Guardian and Al Jazeera, highlighted the allegation after the Justice Department posted its Epstein-related files on Dec. 19, 2025.

However, even though the DOJ posted the document as part of its December 2025 release, the complaint itself dates to January 2020 and was available online years earlier. For example, Courthouse News and CourtListener posted the complaint PDF in 2020. The allegation also circulated on social media well before 2025, including in a Reddit thread discussing the complaint in 2020.

Therefore, posts claiming authorities “forgot to redact” the document in 2025 are misleading. The excerpt wasn’t a new disclosure that surfaced in December 2025, but rather a text from a years-old civil filing that had already been publicly reported on.

Court filings in the case indicate it was settled after the plaintiff accepted an offer from the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program, and that dismissal with prejudice — meaning it could not be refiled — was described as a condition of that settlement release. However, a settlement itself does not prove or disprove the allegations.

In sum …

The screenshot circulating online did appear in the Justice Department’s December 2025 Epstein-related records release, but it was not a newly “unredacted” discovery — it came from a 2020 civil complaint that was publicly available years earlier. The passage reflects a plaintiff’s allegation, not a court finding, and it does not prove the event occurred as described. 

Court records indicate the lawsuit ended after the plaintiff accepted a settlement and the case was dismissed, meaning the court never ruled on the merits of that specific allegation. As a result, the court record does not establish the claim as proven.

We have addressed other claims tied to the DOJ’s December 2025 document release, including a claim about a document alleging Trump commented on someone’s “pert nipples.”

Sources

Bekiempis, Victoria. “Ghislaine Maxwell Accuser Says She Met Trump at 14 and Flew with Prince Andrew.” The Guardian, 1 Dec. 2021. US News. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/01/ghislaine-maxwell-accuser-cross-examination.

Epstein Files: Who and What Are in the Documents? 21 Dec. 2025, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8r38ne1x2mo.

“Epstein Victim Claims He Showed Her Off to Trump When She Was 14.” The Daily Beast, 17 Aug. 2020, https://www.thedailybeast.com/epstein-victim-claims-he-showed-her-off-to-trump-at-mar-a-lago-when-she-was-14/.

“Jeffrey Epstein Introduced Me to Trump at 14, Ghislaine Maxwell Accuser Says.” NBC News, 2 Dec. 2021, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jeffrey-epstein-introduced-trump-14-ghislaine-maxwell-accuser-says-rcna7253.

“LAWSUIT: Epstein Shows 14-Year-Old Girl To Trump: ‘This Is a Good One, Right?’ Trump Smiles and Nods.” Daily Kos, https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/9/6/1975510/-Jeffrey-Epstein-Shows-14-year-old-Girl-To-Trump-This-is-a-good-one-right-Trump-Smiles-and-Nods. Accessed 22 Dec. 2025.

Mackey, Robert, et al. “‘The Most Important Documents Are Missing,’ Says Democratic Representative of Epstein Files Release – as It Happened.” The Guardian, 20 Dec. 2025. US News. www.theguardian.com, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/dec/19/jeffrey-epstein-files-released-trump-administration.

Rascouët-Paz, Anna. “Trump Said Young Female Had ‘pert Nipples,’ Epstein File Alleges.” Snopes, 22 Dec. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/trump-epstein-pert-nipples/.

Sharma, Yashraj. “Epstein Files: Whose Names and Photos Are in the Latest Document Drop?” Al Jazeera, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/21/epstein-files-whose-names-and-photos-are-in-the-latest-document-drop. Accessed 22 Dec. 2025.