The FBI, the Bureau of Prisons, and the Department of Justice inspector general are all allegedly in possession of a copy of the now-infamous surveillance video from the Manhattan Metropolitan Correctional Center, where Jeffrey Epstein died in 2019, without the missing minute of footage.
The claim comes amid a massive scandal regarding nearly 11 hours of footage released earlier this month by the Justice Department and FBI, which included a one-minute jump in the time code just before midnight on August 9-10, 2019.
CBS News reported, citing an unnamed “government source,” that the agencies have video “that does not cut from just before 11:59 p.m. to midnight of the night Epstein died by suicide in his cell.”
As reported by CBS:
What is unclear is why that section was missing when the FBI released what it said was raw footage from inside the Special Housing Unit the night Epstein died, Aug. 9-10, 2019. The recording came from what officials said was the only relevant video camera that was recording its footage in the unit. This video has been cited by multiple government officials as a key piece of evidence in the determination that Epstein died by suicide.
Epstein’s death, as with many aspects of his high-profile sex trafficking case, has become fodder for conspiracy theories. The missing minute added to the conjecture after the release of the video, when news organizations and amateur sleuths who reviewed the video quickly noticed that onscreen jump in the time stamp.
Epstein’s death was ruled a suicide by hanging by the medical examiner, though it has fueled widespread skepticism due to his connections to high-profile figures and the circumstances surrounding his incarceration.
The released video, described by the FBI as “raw footage” from the only relevant camera in the Special Housing Unit, has been a focal point in debates over the official account.
Attorney General Pam Bondi addressed the issue during a cabinet meeting with President Trump earlier this month, attributing the gap to a routine nightly reset of the video system.
“There was a minute that was off that counter, and what we learned from [the] Bureau of Prisons was every year, every night, they redo that video,” Bondi said. She added that the equipment dated back to 1999, causing the system to reset and miss one minute each night.
Bondi indicated that additional footage demonstrating this reset would be shared, though it has not yet been released.
Forensic experts consulted by CBS News expressed skepticism about Bondi’s explanation, noting that a nightly missing minute due to resets is not typical in most surveillance systems. Video forensic analyst Jim Stafford examined the metadata of the released file and found it was not raw as claimed. Instead, the file was created on May 23 of this year, appearing to be a screen capture rather than a direct export. Stafford determined it consisted of two separate videos stitched together and was slightly sped up, resulting in a runtime of about 10 hours and 53 minutes rather than the full 11 hours.
CBS requested comment on this information from the FBI and Justice Department, but they declined to comment. The Bureau of Prisons told the network they “had no additional information to provide.”
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