Actor Matthew McConaughey broadcast live from his home about the Epstein files, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and President Donald Trump.
In March 2026, a rumor circulated online that Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey broadcast live from his home to tell billions of viewers “the truth” in a “video exposing the dark side of power.” According to images appearing in a popular Facebook post spreading the rumor, McConaughey’s broadcast pertained to federal case files for the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, U.S. President Donald Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi and the late Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein victim.
That post (archived), which appeared on performance life coach
The post included a collage of images showing Epstein, Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Epstein associate and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, and Giuffre. A lower image supposedly depicted McConaughey broadcasting with headphones, flanked by monitors showing Bondi and a woman resembling Giuffre with bruises on her face. The post also featured an external link leading to an advertisement-filled blog article.
(Carl Paoli/Facebook)
Other examples of the claim appeared on Facebook, Threads and Truth Social.
We first used search engines such as Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo to locate possible evidence from credible sources about McConaughey broadcasting about the Epstein files. If the story was true, journalists with reputable news outlets, such as The Associated Press or Reuters, would have widely reported on it. That was not the case, nor did McConaughey post any such video on his active YouTube channel.
That lack of reporting, plus other data spelled out below, helped us conclude the rumor was both fictional and featured the usage of artificial intelligence. We’ve rated this claim false.
We emailed representatives for McConaughey to ask about the false stories. We also messaged Paoli via X to ask whether he was still in control of his Facebook page, which began to post similar AI-generated stories in mid-March 2026. In response, Paoli confirmed, “My page got hacked and haven’t been able to get it back.” As of this writing, the “page transparency” tab on Paoli’s compromised page displayed four managers in Vietnam.
Digging into the rumor
A scan of the Carl Paoli Facebook post’s text with the GPTZero text-detection tool found a 95% likelihood of AI. Even with the fallibility of AI-detection tools, a momentary glance at the post’s post might immediately appear to some readers as AI-generated text. Snopes cautions against using AI tools for definitive answers on authenticity without credible supporting evidence.
The text in the post’s linked blog article — with words displayed in images, as opposed to traditional characters that can be highlighted, copied and pasted — also resembled AI-generated writing, including with the common AI usage of over-dramatic language to end stories. The piece ends: “As the discussion continues, one thing remains clear: moments like this do not fade quickly. They linger, prompting questions, encouraging scrutiny, and reshaping how people think about truth, influence, and the platforms through which both are revealed.”
As for the images, the collage in the above-mentioned post featured facial abnormalities consistent with AI-manipulating tools, including for depictions of the Trumps, Epstein, Maxwell, Giuffre and Bondi.
Other posts on the Carl Paoli Facebook page displayed signs of AI, including with AI-generated images and post text, as well as AI-produced article text found on advertisement-filled blogs linked in the posts. Those posts began appearing on March 18, after or around the time Paoli lost access to manage his page
Creators of such content capitalize on social media users’ willingness to believe and share the made-up stories, profiting from advertising revenue on external websites to which the posts link. (Snopes has previously reported on the business strategy.)
The people promoting the fabricated stories gain a little bit of help from human emotion, as well. The fictional story about McConaughey exposing “the truth” somewhat resembled glurge, which Dictionary.com defines as stories “that are supposed to be true and uplifting, but which are often fabricated and sentimental.”
Snopes has debunked similar rumors before. For example, in 2023, we traced the source of another AI-produced false story alleging McConaughey made remarks about the film “Sound of Freedom,” saying that people in Hollywood had “all sold their soul.”
