Brett Ratner was allowed to direct Melania Trump’s documentary.Image: brett ratner/instagram
He shot “Rush Hour” and the Trump film “Melania”: Now Brett Ratner is getting caught up in the Epstein affair again.
02/01/2026, 07:4802/01/2026, 07:48
Thomas Wanhoff / t-online
Hollywood filmmaker Brett Ratner, who most recently directed the film “Melania,” has been caught in the recent publication of the so-called Epstein Files by the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
In one of the photos published on Friday, he can be seen on a sofa with his arms around an unknown, apparently young woman. The “Rush Hour” director sits at the far right end of the couch, dressed in a white shirt and jeans, and hugs a woman who is seated directly next to financier Jeffrey Epstein, who has been convicted of sexual crimes. A second woman sits at the left end of the sofa. The two women’s faces were blurred; their identities are currently unknown. Ratner and Epstein both smile at the camera.
Jeffrey Epstein (l.) and Hollywood director Brett Ratner with two unknown women. The recording comes from the Epstein files.Image: DOJ
The US Department of Justice released the photos on Friday as part of a large batch of documents related to Epstein. Ratner had already been seen in an earlier publication from the Epstein files: At that time, he posed next to the shirtless French model agent Jean-Luc Brunel, who was found dead in his prison cell in 2022. Brunel was accused of raping a child.
“Melania” is Ratner’s first major feature film since 2017. Since then, his career has largely been on hold because several women accused him of sexual misconduct. As a result, he lost many orders. The documentary about First Lady Melania Trump was panned by critics, but is expected to gross around $8 million in its opening weekend. Amazon reportedly paid $40 million for worldwide licensing rights to the film and invested another $35 million in marketing.
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