Jeffrey Epstein Missing Prison Footage From Night of Suicide Released
NEED TO KNOW
- Surveillance footage from outside the prison cell where Jeffrey Epstein committed suicde was released by the House Oversight Committee
- The release includes a “missing” minute of footage from 11:59 p.m. to midnight on Aug.9, 2019 that was missing from footage released by the Justice Department in July
- Conspiracy theorists claimed the ‘missing’ minute offered proof Epstein was murdered after Attorney General Pam Bondi incorrectly claimed it did not exist and had been taped over
A minute of surveillance footage from a camera placed outside the prison cell of Jeffrey Epstein just hours before he died was included in the cache of materials released on Sept. 2 — the same minute the Justice Department had claimed was taped over and no longer existed when the footage was first released earlier this year.
Conspiracy theorists had latched on to the missing minute of footage — from 11:59 p.m. on Aug. 9, 2019 to midnight — as proof of a nefarious plot to cover-up a murder in Epstein’s prison cell and frame it as a suicide.
It is unclear how the minute went unnoticed by the Justice Department, who provided the House Oversight Committee with the materials released to the public.
Metadata for the missing minute of footage shows that the video was uploaded on Aug. 4.
The previously released footage of Epstein footage included the last known recording of Epstein, which shows him being led by guards to make a phone call at 6:54 p.m. the evening before he hanged himself inside his cell.
Guards found his body while doing their rounds at 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 10, 2019.
The release of the more than 33,000 documents coincided with a Sept. 3 rally where Epstein survivors gathered to speak on the steps of the Capitol.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) hosted the event in an attempt to persuade members of the House of Representatives to sign a bill they have sponsored that would require the Justice Department to release all materials related to Epstein.
At present, the bill has been signed by all Democratic members of the House and four Republicans, including Massie.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) has said that he is opposing the release of these documents to protect “survivors and victims,” despite every survivor in attendance at the rally demanding the release of all documents.
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In July, Johnson had urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to release the documents after she said in an interview with Fox News that the she had a copy of Epstein’s client list on her desk for review.
Just days later, Bondi claimed the list did not exist, and she and other members of the cabinet shifted their focus elsewhere despite months of promising full transparency and the release of any and all information about the convicted sex offender.
That news coincided with a growing interest in President Donald Trump’s friendship with Epstein, with whom he socialized for over 15 years.
Trump provided his thought on the rally in remarks made from the Oval Office shortly after the gathering, saying the Epstein files were a “Democrat hoax that never ends.”
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