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What’s happening: Conspiracy-oriented social media users are falsely claiming that the Justice Department released an audio recording on which Erika Kirk, the widow of assassinated conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, admits that she recruited young girls for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Context: On Jan. 30, 2026, the Justice Department released nearly 3 million files — including documents, recordings, and photos — related to the federal investigation into Epstein, a financier who was convicted of solicitation of a minor in 2008 and died in 2019 in a New York City jail while facing federal charges of sex trafficking minors.
The release of the Epstein files has sparked false claims linking Epstein to multiple high-profile figures including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and former President Barack Obama.
A closer look: Among the files released by the Justice Department was an audio recording of a phone call between a young girl and an older woman, in which the woman makes repeated references to “Jeffrey” and says, “I just bring girls to [Jeffrey] and they work for him.” At another...
Police have launched an investigation into alleged false accusation by Park Cheol-min, a former member of the Seongnam International Mafia. Park, ahead of the 2022 presidential election, raised al...