Fact Check: Did a photograph show Chief Justice John Roberts seated next to Ghislaine Maxwell?

WASHINGTON, DC: A widely shared social media photograph has claimed to show Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts seated next to Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted associate of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.The image circulated online with captions suggesting a compromising connection between the two figures.

The claim gained renewed traction in early December 2025, as public attention returned to Maxwell following a federal judge’s order to unseal grand jury records tied to her case under a new “Epstein files” transparency law. Social media users framed the image as evidence of hidden ties within powerful institutions, prompting widespread speculation.

Claim: Viral photograph shows Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts next to Ghislaine Maxwell

The photograph began circulating again on platforms including Threads, X, and Facebook. On December 8, a Threads account shared the image with a caption questioning why judges named in Epstein-related materials were not being investigated. The post implied that the man in the photo was Roberts.

Shortly after, the same image appeared on X, where users reacted with shock and asserted that the photo explained broader conspiracies involving Epstein and the judiciary.

Similar posts surfaced on Facebook, some naming John Glover Roberts Jr. and accusing him of being “compromised.”

Across platforms, the underlying assumption was the same: that the man seated beside Maxwell was the current Chief Justice of the United States.

Fact Check: Photograph shows French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, not John Roberts

While the photograph is genuine, it does not feature Chief Justice John Roberts. The man seated next to Ghislaine Maxwell is French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, who died in prison in 2022. Therefore, the image has been miscaptioned.

A reverse-image search using TinEye traced the photo to the Daily Mail on August 19, 2020. It was captioned: “Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite who orchestrated Epstein's social life, can be seen embracing Jean-Luc Brunel, a French model agency boss accused of helping traffic teenage girls.”

An earlier article published on July 30, 2020, by the French newspaper 20 Minutes included the same image along with another from the same event. The man was correctly identified as Brunel, and the photos were credited as provided directly to 20 Minutes.

A nearly identical image resurfaced in January 2024 as part of unsealed documents from Giuffre v. Maxwell, a civil case filed by Epstein and Maxwell victim Virginia Giuffre. In Document 1332-7, Page 7, the photo is captioned, “Defendant with Jean Luc Brunel in 2006,” further confirming that the man is Brunel, not Roberts. 

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