Newly released docs solve Epstein jail video mystery

A missing minute from video shot in a federal detention center the day of Jeffrey Epstein's death — August 10, 2019 — has been raising questions. But now, according to CBS News, newly released documents are shedding light on this mystery.

According to CBS News reporters Graham Kates and Daniel Ruetenik, the documents "show the FBI's scramble to explain last year why it released a screen recording with a missing minute from the night Jeffrey Epstein died, instead of the original footage."

Kates and Ruetenik report, "The discrepancy fueled conspiracy theories about a cover-up after then-Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino promised the agency would release the original surveillance footage from Epstein's Manhattan jail 'so you don't think there are any shenanigans.' The FBI has never offered a public explanation of how it ended up releasing a video with a gap in footage."

The CBS News journalists add, "Last May, as a groundswell built demanding public scrutiny of the Justice Department's records on Epstein, the agency ran into a problem: it had already destroyed its master copy of surveillance video from Epstein's final hours in the Metropolitan Correctional Center. An FBI agent sought and was granted in June 2024 authorization to destroy an evidence item labeled 1B60, describing it as an exhibit 'no longer pertinent' to the case."