Nearly three minutes of critical footage vanished from the FBI’s so-called “raw” Jeffrey Epstein prison video. The surveillance clip, capturing the night before Epstein’s death, raises fresh doubts about the official narrative, as WIRED reports. Why trim footage from a case already drowning in suspicion?
The video, recently released by the government, covers the only working camera near Epstein’s cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on Aug. 9, 2019. It was part of the Trump administration’s pledge to probe the financier’s death, yet the DOJ’s claim of “full raw” footage doesn’t hold up. WIRED’s analysis exposed the video as a stitched-together edit, not the unfiltered truth promised.
Epstein, accused of heinous crimes like sex trafficking minors, was found dead on Aug. 10, 2019. The DOJ insists it was suicide, with no “incriminating ‘client list’” to be found. That memo feels more like a deflection than a revelation.
The footage, pieced together in Adobe Premiere Pro, came from two source clips. One clip, spanning Aug. 9, was cut short by 2 minutes and 53 seconds, ending at 11:58:58 p.m. That’s conveniently just before a mysterious one-minute gap blamed on a “system reset.”
The second clip kicks in at midnight on Aug. 10, running until 6:40 a.m. Attorney General Pam Bondi called the gap a routine reset, but the timing feels too tidy. Editing out nearly three minutes smells like a cover-up to skeptics.
WIRED’s forensics, backed by two experts with over 15 years in video analysis, confirmed the tampering. The metadata shows that the file was edited and saved multiple times on May 23, 2025, between 4:48 p.m. and 8:16 p.m. A username, “MJCOLE~1,” hints at who might’ve handled the cut.
WIRED reached out to the DOJ on July 15 at 7:40 a.m. Natalie Baldassarre, a DOJ flack, responded two minutes later, punting questions to the FBI. “Refer you to the FBI,” she said, offering nothing but a bureaucratic sidestep.
The FBI, predictably, clammed up and declined to comment. Their silence speaks louder than any press release. If the video was truly “raw,” why dodge questions about its editing?
The first source clip, labeled “2025-05-22 16-35-21.mp4,” ran 4 hours, 19 minutes, and 16 seconds. Only 4 hours, 16 minutes, and 23.368 seconds made the final cut. That missing chunk, sliced just before the reset, fuels distrust in the DOJ’s transparency.
The second clip, “2025-05-22 21-12-48.mp4,” starts right after the gap. Both clips were stitched, saved, and uploaded to the DOJ’s site, per WIRED’s Friday analysis. This isn’t raw footage -- it’s a curated narrative.
The camera, one of only two working in the Special Housing Unit, didn’t even show Epstein’s cell door. It captured the SHU common area and parts of a stairway to his tier. The 2023 DOJ Inspector General report noted the MCC’s surveillance was a mess -- outdated, poorly maintained, with failing DVRs.
A second camera recorded the ninth-floor fire exit and two elevators. Neither gave a clear view of Epstein’s cell. The system’s shoddy state only deepens the mystery of what happened.
President Donald Trump weighed in, blasting critics of Attorney General Bondi. “What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’ They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!” he declared. His frustration with “selfish people” chasing Epstein conspiracies underscores his administration’s push for answers.
The FBI released both “raw” and enhanced versions of the video. The enhanced clip, dubbed Video 2, includes 15 markers noting movement near “46 door,” close to Epstein’s cell block. Yet, without the missing minutes, those markers feel like breadcrumbs leading nowhere.
The public deserves unedited truth, not a DOJ-approved highlight reel. If Bondi’s team is as fantastic as Trump claims, they’ll release the full, untainted footage. Until then, the Epstein case remains a masterclass in government opacity.
