New questions are swirling about the death of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein after one minute of footage appears to be missing from the jail video capturing his final hours, fueling new online conspiracy theories.
After conducting “an exhaustive review” of investigative materials related to Epstein, the Justice Department and FBI released a two-page memo Monday and an 11-hour surveillance video. The distant, blurry footage recorded the area near his cell on the evening of August 9 through the early hours of August 10, when Epstein, awaiting his federal sex trafficking trial, died by suicide, the FBI determined.
A digital clock visible on the bottom left corner of the footage jumps from 11:58:58 p.m. to 12:00:00 a.m. Officials have not yet offered an explanation for the time gap to The Independent or the New York Times.
On Tuesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi addressed the missing minute of footage during a Trump administration Cabinet meeting.
"The video was not conclusive, but the evidence prior to it was showing he committed suicide,” Bondi said. “And there was a minute that was off the counter, and what we learned from the Bureau of Prisons is every night they redo that video, so every night the video is reset, and every night should have the same minute missing."
The FBI and DOJ also rejected the idea that Epstein had a “client list” and investigators uncovered no evidence “that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.” Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for child sex trafficking offenses. While the memo put a decisive end to a few conspiracy theories surrounding his mysterious death, an apparent time gap has given way to new ones.
The video begins around 7.40 p.m. on August 9, 2019, when an orange jumpsuit-clad Epstein is escorted to his cell by a guard. Hours later, around 10.40 p.m., a guard is captured walking toward his cell and then leaving that direction; he’s believed to be the last person to see Epstein alive.
Regarding the one-minute time jump, one Reddit user quipped that the footage release was just a prank: “We got the finished version and it was just a Rick Roll.”
Another wrote: “Crazy what can happen in a single minute.”
“Not suspicious at all,” another remarked sarcastically.
The newly-released footage comes from the “limited” video evidence that was available from the area Epstein was housed, as footage “was only available from one prison security camera due to a malfunction of MCC New York’s Digital Video Recorder system that occurred on July 29, 2019,” an Office of the Inspector General report from June 2023 states.
The report continues: “While the prison’s cameras continued to provide live video feeds, recordings were made for only about half the cameras.”
Despite the limited angles, the report underscored that “anyone entering or attempting to enter Epstein’s [special housing unit] tier from the SHU common area would have been picked up by that video camera.”
The new memo argues that the footage further supports the “conclusion that Epstein died by suicide.”
The Justice Department released its memo after much anticipation over new insights into the disgraced financier’s death. Attorney General Pam Bondi released “Phase 1” of the Epstein files in February, which left some conservative influencers disappointed by the lack of new information. Since then, many were eagerly awaiting “Phase 2” — a new batch that hopefully contained some revelations. Monday’s memo, however, seemed to put an end to the idea of any new findings being released.
The memo states: “it is the determination of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.”
If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you. In the UK, people having mental health crises can contact the Samaritans at 116 123 or jo@samaritans.org
