The internet has been wild with conspiracy theories around a “missing minute” on a security video looking at the cell where Jeffrey Epstein was being housed in the Special Housing Unit on Aug. 9-10, 2019. According to CBS News, however, that minute isn’t missing at all.
A source told the outlet that the FBI, the Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Justice inspector general all have “a copy of the video that does not cut from just before 11:59 p.m. to midnight of the night Epstein died by suicide in his cell.”
It’s entirely possible that nothing happened in that missing minute. However, it raises questions as to why the DOJ and FBI would say in a release that it was “the full raw” footage when the missing minute was cut from the actual “raw and enhanced videos?” The move only sparked further questions.
“The recording came from what officials said was the only relevant video camera that was recording its footage in the unit. This video has been cited by multiple government officials as a key piece of evidence in the determination that Epstein died by suicide,” said CBS.
Earlier this month, Attorney General Pam Bondi was seated with President Donald Trump in the Cabinet room, where she was asked about the “missing minute.” At that time, she claimed that the Bureau of Prisons told her it was from a nightly reset of the recording system, indicating that there were 60 seconds of unmonitored time on surveillance.
The equipment was old — “from like 1999, so every night is reset, so every night should have that same missing minute,” Bondi said.
She promised to release examples from other nights to compare to the Aug 9-10 video. Twenty days later, she has not done so.
It was an odd claim, video forensic professionals told CBS. Having 60 seconds missing from a “nightly reset would have been unusual” and not a characteristic of most video systems.
Those same experts confirm that the video is not the raw footage, as claimed, but clearly edited information.
CBS spoke to Jim Stafford, one of several video forensic analysts, who examined the footage using specific software that can extract underlying metadata.
He said the data “showed that the file was first created on May 23 of this year and that it was likely a ‘screen capture, not an actual export’ of the raw file,” said CBS.
He also said that the “metadata showed that the video was in fact two separate videos stitched together. It was also slightly sped up, so the video covering 11 hours runs approximately 10 hours and 53 minutes in length.”
The glitch happens from 11:58:58 to 12:01. A report from WIRED called it a missing nearly three minutes beginning with the “missing minute.” One corrections officer can be seen going into cell 46 at 12:01:37 a.m. Epstein was not in cell 46; his cell was off camera, near the area.
The full 10-hour and 52-minute video can be seen here on the DOJ’s website.