Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at Trump Tower on September 6, in New York City.
CNN  — 

Former President Donald Trump falsely said Friday that a decades-old photo of him with E. Jean Carroll, the writer he has been found liable for sexually abusing and defaming, might have been created using artificial intelligence – though Trump has previously acknowledged that the photo is authentic.

Trump spoke Friday after he and Carroll appeared in a federal appeals court where he sought a new trial in a civil case in which he has been ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages.

“I never met the woman, other than this picture – which could’ve been AI-generated, I don’t know, showed up out of nowhere. But it’s fine, nice picture,” Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, said during a lengthy diatribe against Carroll and other women who have accused him of sexual assault.

Facts FirstThere is simply no basis for Trump’s claim that the photo might have been “AI-generated.” The photo has been publicly circulating since 2019, the year Carroll accused Trump of sexual assault and shared the photo with media outlets, and there is no indication it is a fake. In fact, Trump has previously admitted the photo is real, though he has said it captured an insignificant interaction.

The photo shows a group conversation involving Trump, his then-wife Ivana Trump, Carroll and her then-husband John Johnson. Carroll has said the photo was taken at a party she believes was held in 1987, years before she says Trump assaulted her in the mid-1990s.

From the US District Court in Manhattan
Donald Trump, E. Jean Carroll, John Johnson and Ivana Trump at an NBC party in the late 1980s.

There is no reason to think it is anything other than a real photo.

“Given that this image has been circulating for more than five years – when generative AI was still in its most nascent stage – the claim that this is AI-generated is, at best, implausible. In addition, there is nothing in this photo that would suggest that it is AI generated in terms of visual artifacts,” said Hany Farid, a University of California, Berkeley, professor specializing in digital forensics.

Farid continued: “This seems like a classic example of the Liar’s Dividend, in which the mere existence of deepfakes allows liars to claim anything – regardless of how implausible – is fake.”

Trump has acknowledged the photo is real

Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan asked Trump during a 2022 deposition if he had been making a true statement when he claimed in 2019 that he had never met Carroll.

Trump responded: “It was a true statement when I made it. I think subsequently or at some point they showed a picture on a receiving – I was on a celebrity line for a charity, and I think I was either shaking her hand or her husband’s hand on a receiving line. … I shake a lot of hands with people, but I had no idea who she was.”

Trump made similar comments about the photo in a speech in Iowa early in 2024, downplaying the photo but acknowledging it was taken at an event he attended. And even on Friday, right after making the “AI-generated” claim,” Trump said the photo was taken while he participated in a “celebrity line.”

Carroll has said the conversation with Trump shown in the photo lasted about five or six minutes. Regardless of the nature or depth of the interaction, it was a real interaction captured on film.