07 July 2020

Fox News caught out cropping Donald Trump out of photo with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and confidante Ghislaine Maxwell

American TV network Fox News has apologised after criticism it had cropped Donald Trump out of a photo alongside sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and confidante Ghislaine Maxwell.

Maxwell, the daughter of British publishing magnate Robert Maxwell, was the former girlfriend and longtime close associate of Epstein, who killed himself in a Manhattan jail last August while he awaited trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

And last week she was indicted on multiple charges, including that she conspired to entice girls as young as 14 to engage in illegal sex acts with Epstein from 1994 through 1997.

Fox News appeared to crop Trump from the original photo during their coverage of the Maxwell story (Twitter: ScottSCroker)

In its report of Maxwell being charged, Fox used the image of her alongside Epstein and Trump’s wife Melania.

However, people were quick to spot that the pro-Trump organisation had cropped the President out of the photo.

After the original image circulated on social media, Fox felt obliiged to apologise.

A spokesperson told The Washington Examiner: "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."

The photo was reportedly taken back in 2000 at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

It is well-documented that the President and Epstein were at some point friends, with Trump speaking of their relationship in a 2002 New York magazine interview.

“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years,” he said. “Terrific guy … He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

On Monday, Maxwell was transferred to Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center in New York to face charges, according to Bureau of Prisons spokesman Justin Long.

Prosecutors have requested that arraignment and a bail hearing be conducted on Friday, July 10.

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