Viral social media posts claim to show Chief Justice John Roberts on Jeffery Epstein’s island.
The photo in question had gone viral previously, with posts from 2018 and 2019 claiming it showed former President Bill Clinton on Epstein’s island. The images were, in fact, taken in January 2017 at the Casa de Campo Resort in the Dominican Republic. Snopes noted at the time that one of Clinton’s friends named George Nader (not, as Snopes proved, a sex offender of the same name) shared one of the images to his Instagram. Several Spanish-language news outlets reported on the trip and shared the pictures in question.
The individual identified as Roberts was not identified in reporting on Clinton’s vacation, but photos of Roberts at Trump’s inauguration, which also occurred in January 2017, show that his head of hair, with all respect to the chief justice, is grayer and not quite as full.
If you have a claim you would like to see us fact check, please send us an email at factcheck@thedispatch.com. If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@thedispatch.com.
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I appreciate the work you do on these fact checks, Alec, but the prominence of the Snopes link makes it read like you simply found the photo on Snopes and reproduced their work. It would also be good to include a refutation of the underlying accusation that the photo is intended to buttress: "There is no evidence that Justice Roberts ever visited Epstein's island" (assuming, of course, that that is indeed the case).
Some of these fact checks make me laugh. I know it has to be done, but how do not just respond with an eye roll and a "Really??".