Almost six years after the death of convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Justice Department has released nearly 11 hours of surveillance video. This footage supposedly shows the hallway outside his prison cell on the night he died. The long-awaited video was meant to put an end to the many conspiracy theories that have spread since his death.
Instead of providing clear answers, the release of the video (found by Daily Mail) has only caused more debate, especially among supporters of former President Trump. This has deepened the existing doubts about the official story that Epstein died by suicide.
The surveillance video starts around 7:49 PM on August 9, 2019. It shows a person in an orange jumpsuit, wearing handcuffs, being led by two guards toward a cell. This person is believed to be Epstein. However, there is a key problem: a thick wooden handrail from a nearby staircase blocks the inmate’s face, making it impossible to confirm his identity from this angle. For several hours after this first sighting, the video records movement in the general area, but no one is seen walking back toward Epstein’s specific cell, which stays out of view the entire time.
New surveillance footage of Epstein released
The video picks up again around 6:27 AM the next day, August 10, when guards are seen preparing and handing out breakfast carts for inmates near Epstein’s cell. Just three minutes later, at 6:30 AM, a very blurry image shows a guard running back into view from the direction of Epstein’s cell, heading toward what looks like a guard station before turning around. This short sequence of events marks the critical moments before Epstein’s body was found.
The release of this footage is especially controversial because of earlier statements from prosecutors. In January 2020, they claimed the surveillance video from outside Epstein’s cell on the night of his death had been accidentally erased. They said the jail saved footage from the wrong cell and that, due to “technical errors,” the video from Epstein’s area was lost because it wasn’t backed up. This sudden change in the official story—from saying the video was destroyed to now releasing parts of it—has only made people more suspicious about Epstein’s death.
The original claim that the footage was deleted fueled many conspiracy theories, and the new video, despite being meant to clear things up, hasn’t fully eased those concerns. Supporters of President Trump have reacted quickly and critically. Well-known conservative figures, some of whom (like Kash Patel and Dan Bongino) now hold high-ranking positions in the FBI under the current administration, had already doubted the official report on Epstein’s death.
Instead of quieting these voices, the new video has made them even more skeptical. Influential figures in the MAGA movement have openly questioned whether the released footage and a related memo tell the whole story, suggesting it might be a “shameful coverup to protect the most evil elites.” Many online comments express the belief that if the leaked information is accurate, it means officials are purposely hiding the truth.
Making things more complicated, a previous Justice Department report stated that between 10:40 PM on August 9, 2019, and 6:30 AM on August 10, no one was seen entering Epstein’s cell area. The newly released video, while showing some movement, doesn’t directly contradict this because Epstein’s cell door isn’t visible. However, the Justice Department insists that anyone going to or from Epstein’s cell would have been recorded by the cameras, even if the door itself wasn’t in view.
This claim is meant to reassure the public that no one entered the cell without permission, but the lack of direct footage of the cell area remains a major point of disagreement. The Justice Department’s official conclusion, repeated in a recent unsigned memo with DOJ and FBI seals, is that Epstein was not murdered, did not blackmail powerful people, and did not keep a “client list.”
Epstein was found unconscious in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in New York City when guards arrived with breakfast just after 6:30 a.m. on August 10, 2019. A bedsheet was tied around his neck, and he was in cardiac arrest. The unclear video doesn’t help clarify much of anything and shows that there wasn’t much surveillance of this specific room.
