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| - Two photographs shared to X on Sept. 17, 2024, purported to show U.S. President-elect Donald Trump — one in which he appears to be standing alongside hip hop mogul and accused sex trafficker Sean "Diddy" Combs and another in which he appears to be standing with his arm around convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
As of this writing, the post featuring the pair of photos has received more than 5.2 million views.
Both photographs are genuine and were captured in the late 1990s.
A reverse image search returned a link to the Getty Images website, which had uploaded the photograph of Trump and Combs on June 20, 2024. A description that accompanied the photograph read:
Sean "Diddy" Combs And Donald Trump
Sean "Diddy" Combs and Donald Trump attend the 1998 Mercedes Benz Polo Challenge at the Bridgehampton Polo Club in Bridgehampton, New York on August 16, 1998. (Photo by Sonia Moskowitz/Getty Images)
Since 2017, numerous men and women have filed lawsuits against Combs, culminating in a grand jury indictment for sex trafficking, racketeering and other charges on Sept. 12, 2024.
During a 2012 episode of "The Apprentice," Trump called Combs a "good guy" and said he was "going to stick up for him," Snopes reported in September 2024.
Another photograph hosted by Getty Images, showing Trump seated between Combs and his wife, Melania Trump, was widely shared in September 2024. It was also authentic.
Snopes first looked into the photograph of Trump and convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein in July 2024, finding that it was authentic. The photo can also be found on Getty Images. It was published by Davidoff Studios Photography and captioned:
Epstein & Trump At Mar-A-Lago
Portrait of American financier Jeffrey Epstein (left) and real estate developer Donald Trump as they pose together at the Mar-a-Lago estate, Palm Beach, Florida, 1997. (Photo by Davidoff Studios/Getty Images)
For further reading, Snopes has fact-checked many photographs in which Epstein allegedly appears with politicians, celebrities and other notable people. The same is true of Combs.
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