Original article (in Bosnian) was published on 6/2/2026; Author: Nerma Šehović
What are the claims?
Young Zohran Mamdani was a part of Jeffrey Epstein’s circle.
What are the facts?
The images allegedly showing the New York mayor in the company of Jeffrey Epstein were generated using artificial intelligence.
On February 1, 2026, an image was posted on the social media platform X showing Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos together with a woman and a boy, accompanied by the claim that the boy in the image is current New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
By the time this analysis was written, the post had nearly 160.000 views. The image spread across social media along with claims that Mamdani was “Epstein’s son” or that his political career was orchestrated by powerful figures who allegedly abused him in childhood (1, 2). In some posts, another image was also shared that supposedly shows a young Mamdani with Epstein.
What are the Facts?
Jeffrey Epstein was an influential American financier and convicted sex offender who drew widespread public attention in 2019 after being indicted on charges of sexual abuse and human trafficking. He was never convicted, as he died by suicide while in custody. Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate and partner, was sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in prison for her role in sex trafficking and the exploitation of minors.
Epstein’s connections with many prominent and influential individuals – including Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, and Britain’s Prince Andrew, as well as accusations made by some of his victims, led to public pressure on U.S. institutions to release all documents related to the investigation. U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been linked to Epstein socially, promised during his 2024 campaign to order the Department of Justice to release all related files. Despite public pressure, his administration delayed publication for nearly a year. Eventually, Congress and the Senate passed legislation requiring disclosure, which Trump signed into law. On January 30, 2026, the Department of Justice released part of the materials, including more than three million documents, 180.000 photographs, and 2.000 videos (link, link).
These materials are publicly available on the U.S. Department of Justice website on this link (archived here).
Among the many individuals mentioned in the documents, some only incidentally, others in potentially incriminating contexts, is Mira Nair, the mother of newly elected New York mayor Zohran Mamdani. Mira Nair, Mamdani’s mother and a film director, appears in one email as a guest at a party at Ghislaine Maxwell’s home following the premiere of a film she directed in 2009. This likely refers to the premiere of Amelia, directed by Nair and starring Hilary Swank.
The images circulating online that allegedly show Mira Nair and her young son with Epstein, Maxwell, Clinton, and others were not included in the released documentation and are not authentic. They are AI-generated images. As reported by the U.S. fact-checking outlet Lead Stories, the image portraying Mamdani as a child with Epstein and others was originally posted on January 31, 2026, by the X account “DumbFckFinder”, which also displays the account’s “DFF” logo. The account describes itself as a parody account that posts AI-generated images and videos.
The AI detection tool Hive Moderation estimated a 99% probability that the image was created using artificial intelligence.
A second image, allegedly depicting Mamdani as a baby, also originated from the same X account. After the images went viral, the creator publicly admitted on X that they had fabricated them, commenting that people had “failed the test”.
Zohran Mamdani was born in 1991, meaning he was 18 years old in 2009, when his mother allegedly attended Maxwell’s party. The person depicted in the viral image is clearly not an 18-year-old.
Claims that Mamdani is Epstein’s son are equally absurd. Mamdani was born in Uganda, where his parents met in 1989, and lived there until age seven before moving with his parents, Mira Nair and Mahmood Mamdani, to New York.
The Epstein case files released by the U.S. Department of Justice contain extensive authentic photographs and documents for those genuinely interested in understanding Epstein’s connections to powerful figures in American society, politics, and business. Sharing fabricated images and conspiracy theories serves no informative purpose.
According to the facts, initial posts sharing AI-generated images falsely presented as showing young Zohran Mamdani with Jeffrey Epstein and other public figures, without noting that the images are not authentic, are rated as fake news. Other posts repeating these claims are rated as spreading fake news.
Posts linking Mamdani’s position as mayor to Epstein and his circle are additionally rated as a conspiracy theory.
