Fox News apologized for cropping President Trump out of a photograph showing late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
The edited photo aired on America’s News Headquarters on Sunday while anchor Leland Vittert reported on Maxwell’s arrest last week. Vittert brought on Jordan Merson, an attorney for several of Epstein’s sexual assault accusers, when the cropped photo appeared on-screen.
In the photo, which was taken at Mar-a-Lago in 2000, Trump is standing next to his future wife, Melania Knauss, who is next to Epstein. Epstein has his arm wrapped around Maxwell’s waist, and she is looking at him. In the version that appeared on Fox News, Trump was cut out of the photo, as was part of Melania Trump’s body.
“On Sunday, July 5, a report on Ghislaine Maxwell during FOX News Channel’s America’s News HQ mistakenly eliminated President Donald Trump from a photo alongside then Melania Knauss, Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell. We regret the error,” a Fox News spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.
Maxwell, a 58-year-old British socialite, was arrested by the FBI in New Hampshire last week on charges of conspiracy to entice minors, enticement of a minor, conspiracy to transport minors, transportation of a minor, and perjury. Investigators said Maxwell played a “critical role” in assisting Epstein in grooming underage girls.
Epstein, a registered sex offender and wealthy financier, was arrested in July 2019 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges for allegedly abusing girls as young as 14. The 66-year-old was found dead in his Manhattan prison cell in August, which the New York City medical examiner determined to be a suicide.
