By Steve Neavling
Federal investigators have a version of the surveillance video from the night Jeffrey Epstein died that includes the “missing minute” omitted from the footage released to the public, CBS News reports.
Earlier this month, the Department of Justice released nearly 11 hours of CCTV footage from inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center, where Epstein was found dead on Aug. 10, 2019. The DOJ said the video confirmed Epstein died by suicide, but the clip was missing about a minute of footage just before midnight.
That gap raised questions about whether the video had been edited. Forensic analysts said it had been altered multiple times, despite the DOJ’s claim that it was the “full raw” clip.
Now, sources tell CBS that the FBI, DOJ inspector general, and Bureau of Prisons all have copies that include the missing minute. It’s still unclear what that minute shows or why it was excluded from the released footage. The FBI and DOJ declined to comment, and the Bureau of Prisons said it “had no additional information to provide.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the system resets nightly and that “every night should have that same missing minute.” But surveillance experts told CBS such resets are not typical, and Bondi hasn’t shared other footage to support her claim.
The released video doesn’t show Epstein’s cell but captures a common area and stairs leading to the tier where his cell was located. Officials say anyone accessing that area would have appeared on camera.
But Miami Herald journalist Julie K. Brown, who helped expose Epstein’s crimes, said that may not be true.
“It’s quite possible that someone from another part of that area could have gone up into his cell,” she told CNN. “We don’t know because we don’t have anything on his cell door. The doors they show in that video are not of his cell.”
