As the public continues its quest for information on late child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s partners in crime, commonly referred to as the Epstein client list, a new probe has shed light on the mounting discrepancies surrounding his demise.
The Department of Justice and the FBI released a joint memo in early July declaring that there was no client list and that the ultra-rich 66-year-old money handler had in fact, ended his own life—case closed.
But the unsigned two-page declaration did nothing to put the matter to rest, as the current administration had hoped.
A whole eight minutes are unaccounted for
A CBS report honed in on footage supposedly enhanced for “increased viewability and released by the FBI on July 15.
But instead, it found that contrary to the commonly disseminated assertion that the footage from the camera covering Epstein’s cell was 11 hours long, it was in fact 10 hours 52 minutes.
A whole 8 minutes were unaccounted for—a discrepancy that eclipses the bombshell report by tech company Wired, which stated that–unlike the FBI’s report of a minute missing due to a routine reset–there was, in fact, a 3-minute gap around midnight between August 9 and 10, 2019.
An unknown individual was seen in the facility
Despite these missing minutes and the awkward angle of the camera, which offered a grainy view of the landing outside Epstein’s cell and the reception area, the lens spotted an “unidentified individual.”
“The inspector general’s report says only two staff members entered the unit after midnight: one is a corrections officer, identified only as ‘CO3,’ and the other is described as the Morning Watch Operations Lieutenant.
“The presence of a third unidentified individual seen on the video is not addressed by the inspector general’s report,” the report published on July 29 elaborated.
It appears the Inspector General’s report was not entirely forthcoming about the circumstances surrounding a phone call
It goes on to say that then Inspector General Michael Horowitz appeared to blur facts around a call made by Epstein during his stay at the facility before he passed away.
It claimed that one of the corrections officers, Tova Noel, who escorted him to make a call in a shower area, left him there while she used a restroom.
When she returned, Horowitz alleged, Noel found Epstein had already been escorted to his cell by another staffer. CBS’s analysis, however, suggests otherwise.
It claimed that a female guard appearing to be Noel had in fact walked Epstein back to his cell.
It also observed an unnamed officer exiting his cell before he was returned to it.
The officer seen leaving the cell was one of many in Noel’s absence, despite Noel’s claims that only she and her colleague, Michael Thomas, had the keys to access Epstein’s room.
“As a result, there is no way to know from the video if it indeed was possible for someone to enter the unit and climb the stairs to Epstein’s cell without being seen,” the report surmised.
Epstein claimed he was going to phone his mother, but when a facility senior dialed the New York number, a man answered
The phone call has raised just as many questions.
Epstein had told his jailers that he needed to phone his mother—they did not know that she had passed away in 2003.
The facility’s manager set up the call, dialing the New York number. When a man’s voice answered from the other side, the corrections officer handed the handset to Epstein.
A Bureau of Prisons’ Director would later tell investigators: “We don’t know what happened on that phone. It could have potentially led to the incident [Epstein’s demise], but we don’t — we will never know.”
Not all of the CCTV footage has been released
Camera footage covering other angles, such as an elevator bank used to move inmates and monitor the guard desk, has been withheld.
CBS writes, “Federal officials have dismissed those recordings as unhelpful,” a claim that has since been refuted by other professionals, who feel the footage could “add value” to the probe.
“They could, for instance, help determine whether the DVR system did in fact reset nightly and consistently lose one minute, as Attorney General Pam Bondi has said — or provide evidence to contradict her claim,” it speculated.
The Office of Inspector General stands on its assessment
Perhaps the most suggestive of the anomalies in the case was a New York medical examiner Dr. Michael Baden’s take when he found tell-tale signs during Epstein’s autopsy that were suggestive of homicide.
Despite the findings, Chief ME Dr. Barbara Sampson ruled that Epstein had hanged himself.
The Office of Inspector General has since reacted to the CBS report, saying: “Nothing in [the] analysis changed or modified the OIG’s conclusions or recommendations.”
