There have been LOTS of these (ooh, they knew about it one day beforehand!) narratives popping up in recent times.
Example, the AI-written 'book' about Charlie Kirk's death that was 'published one day before it happened'. When an author can input whatever publication date they want, even backdating it....
Grok says the original document has been doctored (date changed).
The image in the post is doctored. The official press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York was issued on Saturday, August 10, 2019—the day Jeffrey Epstein died.
The text in the image matches the official statement verbatim, but the date has been altered to Friday, August 9, 2019, to falsely imply it was prepared in advance. The URL in the image (http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys) also differs slightly from the official one (https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny).
The press release from U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman regarding Jeffrey Epstein's death was originally published as a digital HTML webpage on the Department of Justice website on August 10, 2019, shortly after 3:30 PM ET. There is no evidence of an official paper document, scanned image, or PDF version ever being released by the SDNY or DOJ for this specific statement—press releases from that office during this period were typically issued digitally via their website, without accompanying printable formats like PDFs.
The image in the X post (a static graphic formatted to resemble a formal document with headers, footers, and a "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE" banner) does not match any archived or official source. It appears to be a manually created or edited recreation, likely starting from a screenshot of the live HTML page (or its text), then altered to change the date from Saturday, August 10 to Friday, August 9, and tweak minor details like the URL (using an outdated "http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys" instead of the current "https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny").
No original "paper" or image-based document exists in public records, DOJ archives, or third-party sources (including FOIA-released Epstein files, which contain thousands of PDFs but none matching this exact press release format).
If you're seeking further records, a FOIA request to the DOJ could potentially uncover internal drafts, but based on extensive searches of released Epstein files (over 3 million documents as of 2026), no such original image or paper version has surfaced.
This one gets a bona fide "Disinfo Pysop" vote from me.
(and <ahem> confirmation bias is a slippery beast)
Yeah, Nah, I don' tthink so, personally.
There have been LOTS of these (ooh, they knew about it one day beforehand!) narratives popping up in recent times.
Example, the AI-written 'book' about Charlie Kirk's death that was 'published one day before it happened'. When an author can input whatever publication date they want, even backdating it....
Grok says the original document has been doctored (date changed).
Gives the link:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/statement-manhattan-us-attorney-death-defendant-jeffrey-epstein
Currently trying to track down the original image...
https://web.archive.org/web/20190810221311/https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/statement-manhattan-us-attorney-death-defendant-jeffrey-epstein
Grok:
This one gets a bona fide "Disinfo Pysop" vote from me.
(and <ahem> confirmation bias is a slippery beast)