New footage released from Jeffrey Epstein’s jail unit has blown up Attorney General Pam Bondi’s explanation about why a minute was missing from a previously released video.
When the Justice Department and the FBI initially released nearly 11 hours of footage from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in July, there was a crucial one-minute gap in the security surveillance video just hours before Epstein died in 2019.
At the time, Bondi claimed the security cameras automatically cut out for one minute as part of a system reset each night. However, MAGA erupted after forensic analysis showed the video was edited repeatedly.
The new surveillance footage, which was part of the bulk online drop at 6 p.m. Tuesday, fills in that missing minute between 11:59 p.m. on August 9, 2019, and midnight on August 10, 2019.
However, the video appears to show very little. In the footage from the new files, a number of guards are visible working near Epstein’s cell.
The extra minute is contained within two additional hours of footage from the new files, according to the BBC.
The Daily Beast has contacted Bondi’s office for comment.
Outside of the missing one minute, the footage released on Tuesday also shows Epstein being walked through the detention centre to make a phone call, as reported by CBS.
The release of the missing footage has re-ignited debate online over whether Epstein took his own life when he was found unresponsive in his cell in the jail at 6.30 a.m.
The FBI stated in July that after investigating the prison footage, no one had entered or left the area where Epstein was being held, leading them to agree with the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, and the DOJ’s inspector general that Epstein took his own life.
As well as videos and documents, the epic file dump on Google Drive and Dropbox included audio recordings, emails, and court filings.
The Committee’s ranking Democrat, Robert Garcia, said the only new disclosure in the Tuesday dump was fewer than 1,000 pages from the Customs and Border Protection’s log of flight locations of the Epstein private plane from 2000 to 2014, as well as forms consistent with re-entry back to the U.S.
Garcia called out the Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer directly for the lack of unseen material in the files.
“The 33,000 pages of Epstein documents James Comer has decided to ‘release’ were already mostly public information. To the American people – don’t let this fool you,“ Garcia said on Tuesday in a statement.
Revealing their calculations that only 3 percent of the document dump contained any new information, he added, “There is no mention of any client list or anything that improves transparency or justice for victims. House Republicans are trying to make a spectacle of releasing already-public documents.”
“Pam Bondi has said the client list was on her desk. She could release it right now if she wanted to... Pam Bondi must comply with our subpoena immediately, and release all of the documents. The American people demand it.”
Garcia posted a video on his X account stating that most of the files released this week had been given to “given to right-wing influencers back in February.”
“Release all the files NOW,” Garcia added.
Republican Thomas Massie, a regular foe of Trump, even suggested the president may have been selective about which Epstein files are released to protect his friends.
Massie said the best way for Trump to clear his name is to release all the files.
“I actually don’t think he’s done anything criminal,” Massie said on All In on MSNBC on Tuesday. “I think he may be covering for some rich and powerful people that are friends of his.”
He added, “In fact, some of those billionaires are running ads against me in Kentucky right now. One of them is in Epstein’s black book. So, we’re getting close to the center of power here. Embarrassment is not a reason to conceal all of this stuff. We’ve got to get it out in the open, regardless of whose friends might be incriminated.”
Democratic congressman Jim McGovern also posted on X, noting, “Fact check: nearly everything Republicans just supposedly ‘released’... has already been released. They are doing everything in their power to muddy the waters. RELEASE. THE. FILES.”
