Melania Trump's Documentary Director Found in Epstein Files as Rush Hour 4 and White House Project Loom

Brett Ratner, the man directing Melania Trump's upcoming documentary, has surfaced in a photograph released last week as part of the massive Epstein files dump. The image shows him with Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modelling agent who was awaiting trial for child sex crimes when he killed himself in prison nearly three years ago.

The photo itself is murky - literally and figuratively. Shot in what appears to be a poorly lit room, it shows Ratner with his arm around a shirtless Brunel. There's no date on it, no location, nothing to tell us when or where it was taken. The US Department of Justice released it on 19 December amongst roughly 3,900 other files connected to Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking operation.

Trump's First Lady picks controversial director

What makes this particularly awkward is the timing. Ratner's £31 million documentary about the First Lady is set to hit cinemas on 30 January. Fox News dropped the trailer on 17 December, giving viewers a glimpse of what they're calling an 'unprecedented behind-the-scenes look' at Melania Trump's return to the White House. The film tracks the 20 days before Donald Trump's second inauguration in January.

The choice of director hasn't exactly been celebrated. When the trailer dropped, hosts on The View didn't hold back. Alyssa Farah Griffin was blunt: 'I wouldn't, if I was a staffer, put the first lady in the position of working with somebody who had that history'. Co-host Joy Behar suggested with heavy sarcasm that Ratner was actually the perfect choice for such a project.

Brunel's dark history with Epstein

Jean-Luc Brunel wasn't just any Epstein associate - he was deeply embedded in the financier's world. The 76-year-old ran MC2 Model Management, a company Epstein bankrolled to the tune of around a million dollars back in 2004. Virginia Giuffre, who became one of Epstein's most vocal accusers, named Brunel repeatedly in court filings, claiming Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell directed her to have sex with him whilst she was still underage.

In testimony given to a Paris court in January 2021, Giuffre recounted what Epstein allegedly told her: that he'd 'slept with over a thousand women that Brunel brought in'. Flight records show Brunel travelled on Epstein's private jet at least 25 times between 1998 and 2005. When Epstein was locked up in 2008, Brunel visited him more than 70 times.

French authorities arrested Brunel at Charles de Gaulle airport in December 2020 as he tried to board a flight to Senegal. He was charged with raping a minor and supplying minors for sexual exploitation. Before he could stand trial, guards found him hanged in his cell at La Santé Prison in February 2022.

Rush Hour 4 adds to unlikely comeback

The Melania documentary isn't Ratner's only project. He's also attached to direct Rush Hour 4, reuniting Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker for another round. What's interesting is how this came about - reportedly, President Trump asked his friend Larry Ellison to revive the franchise. Ellison's son David happens to be Paramount's chairman and CEO.

For Ratner, these projects represent something close to redemption after his career collapsed in 2017. That's when six women, including actresses Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge, came forward during the #MeToo movement with allegations of sexual misconduct. Ratner denied everything, but Warner Bros still walked away from their £347 million deal with his production company. No criminal charges were ever filed, but work dried up almost overnight. His last directorial effort was Hercules back in 2014.

A photo amongst thousands

Ratner isn't alone in these files. The Justice Department's release included images of numerous famous faces: Bill Clinton, Kevin Spacey, Chris Tucker, Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross. The DOJ has been careful to stress that appearing in a photograph doesn't prove anyone committed crimes.

USA TODAY contacted Ratner's representatives and RatPac Entertainment for comment but hasn't heard back.

Why transparency matters

The Epstein files aren't just tabloid fodder. These documents represent years of investigation into a sex trafficking network that allegedly exploited vulnerable young women and girls. For survivors like Virginia Giuffre, seeing these files made public offers validation - proof that their stories were documented and taken seriously by law enforcement. Both Epstein and Brunel died by suicide before facing trial, denying their accusers the chance to see them held accountable in court. The files can't make up for that loss, but they do provide a record of who moved in Epstein's circles and how his world functioned.