The FBI has publicly released CCTV footage showing Jeffrey Epstein’s final hours in prison.
Epstein, 66, was booked into the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York in July 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking underage girls and conspiracy.
Due to fears for his safety in the high-profile case, he was segregated from the general prison population.
His mental health reportedly declined on July 18, 2019, after a judge denied him bail, leading to his first suicide attempt. He was found semi-conscious with neck injuries, as reported by the New York Post.
Epstein was placed on suicide watch and later moved to federal prison, where he was found unresponsive in his cell on August 10 and pronounced dead at the hospital.
While coroners ruled his death a suicide by hanging, the newly concluded FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation has confirmed this finding, stating Epstein was not murdered and did not keep a “client list” used for blackmail, per the Daily Mail.
The 11-hour footage, posted to the DOJ website and taken outside Epstein’s cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on August 9 and 10, 2019, was released following a campaign pledge by US President Donald Trump.
The orange-clad Epstein is seen on camera being led back to his cell by a guard, with a second guard following, at 7:49PM on August 9.
The video, which spans from 7:40PM to 6:40AM the following day, does not show his cell door directly, but would have captured anyone approaching it.
The DOJ confirmed that aside from the guards leaving, no one else is seen walking to or from his cell, and a prior report stated that between 10:40PM on August 9 and 6:30AM on August 10, no one entered Epstein’s cell tier.
Epstein’s death sparked widespread conspiracy theories due to his connections with high-profile figures, including Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, and Prince Andrew.
Ahead of the footage’s release, FBI Director Kash Patel, who was initially skeptical of the official findings, stated: “We’re not gonna re-victimize women. We’re not gonna put that s*** back out there. It’s not happening because then, he wins.”
Patel later told Joe Rogan that during his review, he had not found evidence of “some guy or gal committing felonies” linked to Epstein’s death.
“If I had it, I’d be the first guy to bring this case hard and fast,” he said, noting that the FBI has viewed everything lawfully available, including material connected to Epstein’s controversial private island, Little Saint James. “I got here 100 days ago. I can’t be held to account for 20 years of failures,” he added.
In March, Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, released hundreds of pages of documents connected to Epstein, including redacted flight logs and contact lists showing names from Hollywood, politics, and fashion.
Bondi described the documents as “a lot of names” and “a lot of information,” stating on Fox, “But it’s pretty sick what that man did, along with his co-defendant,” referring to Ghislaine Maxwell.
The release, however, contained documents that had largely circulated in the public domain for years, with no new bombshell revelations. This led to disappointment among those seeking further accountability for Epstein’s crimes.
Epstein’s crimes first gained public attention in 2005 when the parents of a 14-year-old girl reported to Florida police that he had molested their daughter at his Palm Beach home.
Following a raid, police discovered pictures of young girls throughout his property, but Epstein avoided federal charges by cutting a plea deal. He received an 18-month sentence that allowed him to leave jail on “work release” for 12 hours a day, six days a week.
He was released on probation after 13 months and was later registered as a level three sex offender in New York, indicating a high risk of reoffending.
Despite this designation, he maintained his wealth and social connections, including with Prince Andrew, who was pictured with him in Central Park in 2010.
Prince Andrew later said in a BBC interview that he went to New York to end his friendship with Epstein following allegations by the late Virginia Giuffre, who claimed she was forced to have sex with the royal when she was 17.
Giuffre was found dead at her home in Western Australia on April 25 earlier this year.
Epstein was arrested in 2019 upon returning to New York from Paris, with prosecutors seeking to seize his mansion where much of the abuse allegedly took place.