When the U.S. Department of Justice released a nearly 11-hour video in early July that purported to show the last time Jeffrey Epstein was seen alive, people couldn’t help but notice that there was a full minute missing. Attorney General Pam Bondi insisted there was a simple explanation: That’s just how the jail’s antiquated camera systems work. But a new report claims Bondi isn’t telling the truth.
The report from CBS News cites a “government source familiar with the investigation” who told the news outlet that the FBI, the Bureau of Prisons, and the Department of Justice Inspector General all have a copy of the surveillance footage with the missing minute. The DOJ claimed in a letter that it was the “full raw” video, though Wired magazine found metadata evidence that the video was edited together from at least two source clips and saved multiple times.
Epstein, who was in jail on child sex trafficking allegations, was found dead in his cell at the Manhattan Metropolitan Correctional Center the morning of August 10, 2019, and his death was ruled a suicide. But many people believe Epstein didn’t actually kill himself and was instead murdered to keep him from talking about the powerful people in his orbit who allegedly abused children.
The video, which we’ve clipped below, shows the moment on the night of August 9 when the counter on the tape jumps from 11:58:58 p.m. to 12:00:00 a.m.
Neither of the green doors visible in the video actually shows the cell where Epstein was staying. Epstein was escorted to his cell at 7:49 PM after meeting with his lawyers, and a figure in an orange jumpsuit is seen moving from left to right in the video. Two cameras that were closer to his cell door and presumably gave a better view of his cell door “malfunctioned,” according to a report from Reuters published Aug. 28, 2019.
Bondi’s explanation for the missing minute of video was that the camera system simply reset each night and was so old that every video taken at the jail looked like that. During a cabinet meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump on July 8, reporters asked about the missing minute of video, and Trump was indignant that people were still talking about Epstein before allowing Bondi to speak.
“We released the video showing definitively… the video was not conclusive, but the evidence prior to it was, showing he committed suicide,” Bondi said. “And what was on that… there was a minute that was off the counter. And what we learned from Bureau of Prisons was every year… every, um, night they redo that video. It’s old, it’s from like 1999.”
Bondi appeared flustered, to say the least. And she went on to suggest that she was going to release evidence showing that a minute is always missing. “So every night the video is reset,” Bondi said. “And every night should have the same minute missing. So we’re looking for that video to release that as well, showing that a minute is missing every night. And that’s it on Epstein.”
DOJ didn’t respond to questions emailed Tuesday morning about whether the agency is in possession of the missing minute. Gizmodo also asked about whether Bondi was going to ever release video showing that there’s always a minute missing from the surveillance videos at that jail. As far as we can tell, that never happened.
Wired also found evidence that there may be two additional minutes missing, though there’s some question about whether that discrepancy has more to do with frame rates or the video being slightly sped up. But whether it’s a minute or three minutes, something isn’t adding up.
President Trump can’t seem to make the story of Epstein go away. Trump was friends with Epstein before they had a falling out and has been at the center of questions about what happened to Epstein. The Wall Street Journal and New York Times recently reported on a birthday album for Epstein in 2003 that included friendly letters from people like Trump and former president Bill Clinton. Fake letters have gone viral on social media but photos of the actual letters haven’t been published yet, though Trump’s letter reportedly refers to Epstein and Trump having a “wonderful secret.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that one of the birthday letters was from Nathan Myhrvold, a former Microsoft executive, who included photos from a trip to Africa. The photos reportedly included jokes about animals having sex, including lions and zebras. Myhrvold did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Gizmodo. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates also reportedly met with Epstein dozens of times from 2011 to 2014, leading to speculation that his association with the financier may have played a role in his divorce from Melinda Gates. Bill has denied any wrongdoing and called those meetings a “mistake.”
Trump has appointed several people to powerful positions who all previously insisted there was a coverup and promised to release files on Epstein, including FBI Director Kash Patel, and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, and Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bongino even threatened to quit and had some kind of explosive argument with Bondi, according to several reports. But the calls for transparency among folks like Patel and Bondi came to a screeching halt earlier this month when the DOJ declared in a letter that the case was closed. And that just raised more questions after people noticed the missing minute from the video.
“This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list.’ There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties,” the DOJ statement reads.
Declaring the case closed hasn’t satisfied anyone, regardless of political party. If anything, people who previously believed Epstein did kill himself are now starting to question the official explanation. Because DOJ wasn’t compelled to release the 11 hours of video, and anyone with eyes can see that at least a minute is missing. And the deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche, met with Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, last week in prison, leading to even more questions about what the White House might be cooking up. Blanche is Trump’s former personal attorney, and it’s highly unusual for such a high-ranking official at the DOJ to meet with someone in prison like that.
Trump said Monday that he’s not thinking about a pardon for Maxwell but he hasn’t ruled it out. “Well, I’m allowed to give her a pardon. But nobody’s approached me with it, nobody’s asked me about it,” said Trump. “It’s in the news about that. That aspect about it. But right now it would be inappropriate to talk about it.”
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