A black-and-white photograph, in which a woman, seemingly resembling a younger U. von der Leyen, with her ear pressed to J. Epstein’s lips, was shared on July 14 by a “Facebook” user from Lithuania. Alongside it, she published a short comment in Lithuanian and English.
“Here is the EU Nazi criminal von der merden (this is a distorted surname of the EC head, with the French word merde – shit – woven into it – ed. note) in the company of her little friend Jeffrey Epstein. If anyone thought that the power network she was part of only covered the United States, they were very wrong,” the post states.
It is further claimed that “Epstein’s coalition” is “more alive and stronger than ever.” Paolo Sensini is named as the author of these thoughts.
In the frame itself, the so-called Epstein files are indicated as the source – case material of the US billionaire, financier, sexual offender J. Epstein, who was tried for the sexual exploitation of minors.
Even the case number (C-2012-0781) and document number (D-2012-15427) are provided. Also – a link to an already removed post on the social network “X”.
But the photo can be found on several social media accounts, including an account named Paolo Sensini on “Facebook”. On July 13, he published not only the photograph but also the text quoted above, only in Italian.
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On the same day, an image of U. von der Leyen and J. Epstein appeared on the website francais.news-pravda.com, one of the “Pravda” network sites. This network is assessed by the Atlantic Council’s organization DRRlab, the European Digital Media Observatory EDMO, and VIGINUM (the French government agency responsible for detecting and analyzing digital interference and information manipulation from abroad) as a pro-Kremlin disinformation operation carried out across Europe.
Mentions serious crimes
P. Sensini was not the first to share the shot. On July 11, it was uploaded to a German “Facebook” group. Here, in the photograph itself, serious accusations were made against the European Union official.
The photo states in German that emails and statements allegedly show that U. von der Leyen was mentioned several times in newly released documents: “European, especially German, children were allegedly handed over to J. Epstein’s inner circle through intermediaries.”
Below is the “TikTok” account name @marioschwarz57. This content creator, who is followed by over 12,000 people on this social network, has also published more provocative posts related to J. Epstein’s case. His post with a photo of U. von der Leyen and the sexual offender, also published on July 11, has been viewed 14.4 thousand times to date.
Since then, the photograph has spread not only on “Facebook” but also on “Instagram”, “X” in Italian, English, Slovenian, Dutch, German, Polish accounts and groups.
Number – of an “atomic” document
The name of the EC President did indeed appear in Epstein’s case documents. On the US Department of Justice’s website where they are published, 20 entries are found under the surname “von der Leyen”.
However, none of these documents confirm a direct connection with the sexual offender or his network. The mention of U. von der Leyen was always related to general news about political activity – as a former German minister or head of the EC, for example, in the context of Brexit.
The photo and some social media posts show case and document numbers (C-2012-0781 and D-2012-15427, respectively).
A search in publicly available Epstein files is inconclusive – there are no documents with such numbers. According to fact-checkers from the dpa news agency in Austria, the official numbering format for J. Epstein’s cases is “EFTA…pdf”, so the mentioned numbers do not match the format.
In fact, document number D-2012-15427 (Federal Register Document 2012-15427) was an administrative notice from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This document, dated June 25, 2012, informed about the renewal of a nuclear power plant license in Minnesota.
In November 2025, a law that came into force in the US mandated the disclosure of this material. This is a collection of 3 million documents, photos, letters, etc., which, among other things, document the sexual crimes committed by J. Epstein and his network. However, many documents, such as correspondence with friends or discussions of various events, do not allow for any conclusions about criminal activity.
The mention of a name in a massive collection of documents is not incriminating evidence, especially since none of them confirm specific claims about the alleged affiliation of the EC head with J. Epstein’s organization or the recruitment of people, noted the Austrian fact-checking website “Mimikama”.
From the text provided in the photo, it is unclear what emails or statements are being referred to – who their authors are, when they were written or published. Such information is also absent in the accompanying comments, although, when making such serious accusations, reliable sources – links to documents, quotes, etc. – would be needed.
Photo is fake
Reverse image search does not help much – such a photograph simply cannot be found in reliable sources where its authenticity would be confirmed. There is no authentic photo of U. von der Leyen with J. Epstein in any press archive or documents published by the US Department of Justice.
The financier and U. von der Leyen were allegedly captured at some event. When, where, and on what occasion it took place is unclear. If such a meeting had indeed occurred, one would expect more similar images from different perspectives, and perhaps even video footage. This would be one of the signs that the shots are authentic.
Special tools helped determine that the photograph contains a hidden “SynthID” watermark, which indicates that the entire image or part of it was likely edited or generated using Google’s artificial intelligence. This was discovered by fact-checkers from dpa and the Italian website “Open”.
“SynthID” is a digital watermark that Google adds to all its AI-generated content. It is a small change at the pixel or similar level. People do not see it like regular watermarks (e.g., the name of the photo’s author or video creator), but a special program recognizes it.
On July 12, when a “Facebook” user published the photo in question, an automatically inserted line about AI usage appeared next to it. This means that AI could have been used in various ways – from editing the shot to creating it from scratch.
15min verdict: fake photo. The shot was created using artificial intelligence, and the case and document numbers provided in it are not found in Epstein’s files.
The publication was prepared by 15min in cooperation with “Meta”, aiming to stop the spread of misleading news on the social network. More about the program and its rules – here.
