The FBI has a version of the surveillance video filmed near Jeffrey Epstein’s prison block on the night of his death that—unlike the video released to the public—is not missing a minute of footage.
Earlier this month, the Department of Justice released nearly 11 hours of CCTV footage taken inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center intended to show that Epstein had died by suicide. The Trump administration immediately faced questions about why the time code displayed in the video indicated that the minute before midnight was not included in the clip.
The DOJ said the “full raw” clip would have captured anyone entering Epstein’s cell the night he died, but forensic analysis showed the video was edited repeatedly over several hours, with about a minute of footage missing.
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Now, government sources say the FBI, Bureau of Prisons, and DOJ inspector general all possess a copy of the video that contains the infamous “missing minute,” CBS News reported.
It’s still not clear what that minute shows or why it was missing from the video the DOJ released, according to CBS. The FBI and the DOJ declined to comment, and the Bureau of Prisons told the network it “had no additional information to provide.”
The missing minute has been fodder for conspiracy theorists who believe Epstein—who was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges when he died the night of Aug. 9-10, 2019—was murdered to protect his powerful clients and associates.
Attorney General Pam Bondi explained away the discrepancy in the video by saying that the system resets every night, “so every night should have that same missing minute.”
She hasn’t shared any other footage confirming that explanation, though, and surveillance video experts told CBS that resets aren’t a feature of most video systems.
The footage was taken in a cell block in the Special Housing Unit where Epstein was held at the MCC.
The block is near Epstein’s cell, but doesn’t show it. Instead, a common area and set of stairs leading to various “tiers,” one of which held Epstein’s cell, are visible in the back third of the frame.
The FBI found that cameras directly outside Epstein’s cell had malfunctioned the night he died. According to the FBI and the DOJ, anyone attempting to access the tier containing Epstein’s cell from the common area would have been visible in the footage.
But Julie K. Brown, the Miami Herald reporter whose reporting exposed Epstein in 2017 and 2018, told CNN’s Jake Tapper earlier this month that there were actually other entrances to Epstein’s wing besides the one shown on camera.
“It’s quite possible that someone from another part of that area could have gone up into his cell,” she said. “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.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the DOJ and FBI for comment.
The Epstein controversy has consumed the Trump administration for weeks after the DOJ and the FBI issued a memo earlier this month stating conclusively that the disgraced financier did not have a “client list” and died by suicide.
Those conclusions angered many of the president’s own supporters, who expected the administration to provide bombshell revelations in the case.
Trump himself was friends with Epstein for more than a decade before the two had a falling out in the early 2000s. On Monday, Trump contradicted a previous claim from his White House that he had cut ties with Epstein because the financier was a “creep,” suggesting their relationship actually ended because Epstein “stole” Trump’s staff.
He also said that he had “never had the privilege” of visiting Epstein’s private Caribbean island.
