A strange "orange shape" was seen in publicly released CCTV footage showing Jeffrey Epstein’s final hours in prison.
The 66-year-old disgraced financier was found hanged in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on August 10, 2019, weeks after being arrested on federal sex trafficking charges.
Despite a prior suicide attempt and his placement in a high-risk unit, Epstein was left unmonitored overnight, and his cell door remained outside the view of security cameras.
The FBI and Department of Justice reaffirmed earlier this year that he died by suicide and stated there is no evidence he was murdered or kept a blackmail “client list", per the Daily Mail.
But a video released by the DOJ and reviewed by CBS News has triggered new scrutiny.
At 10:40PM on the night of his death, a shadowy "orange figure" is seen ascending the stairs toward Epstein’s cell block. Federal investigators claimed the pixelated object was a corrections officer carrying linen or inmate clothing. However, forensic video experts now suggest otherwise.
“Based on the limited video, it’s more likely a person in an [orange] uniform,” retired NYPD sergeant Conor McCourt told CBS.
The video - which appears to be a screen recording rather than raw surveillance - includes a visible cursor, menus, a sudden change in aspect ratio, and a one-minute skip just before midnight.
Analysts say the key areas near Epstein’s cell are obscured or entirely off-camera, undermining claims that no one could have accessed his unit undetected.
“To say that there’s no way that someone could get to that, the stairs up to his room, without being seen is false,” said expert Jim Safford, echoing the concerns of four other specialists interviewed by CBS.
Still, the Office of the Inspector General dismissed the concerns, stating: “Nothing in [CBS’s] analysis changed or modified the OIG’s conclusions.”
The growing skepticism has spilled into political circles. FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino recently posted a cryptic message on X, claiming to have uncovered disturbing information in internal investigations, including the Epstein case.
"What I have learned in the course of our properly predicated and necessary investigations into these aforementioned matters has shocked me down to my core,” Bongino wrote. “We cannot run a Republic like this.”
Though he did not share specifics, Bongino has reportedly voiced frustration with the FBI’s stance that Epstein’s death was a suicide and that no client list exists.
The release of the security footage was prompted by a campaign pledge by President Donald Trump. It was intended to put conspiracy theories to rest, but instead, it has reignited them.
The 79-year-old has urged his supporters to move on from the case, calling the financier “somebody that nobody cares about,” and has praised Attorney General Pam Bondi for her handling of the DOJ’s document release, which included heavily redacted logs and contacts, but no new revelations.
Meanwhile, Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, currently serving a 20-year sentence, has emerged at the center of renewed legal and political maneuvering.
She was recently questioned by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, as her legal team pushes for a presidential pardon or commutation.
Her attorneys have also offered congressional testimony in exchange for clemency, posing a challenge for the president as he attempts to distance his campaign from the fallout of the Epstein case.
“We would like to find a way to co-operate with Congress if a fair and safe path forward can be established,” her lawyers wrote in response to a subpoena from House Oversight Chair James Comer, who had requested her deposition from a Florida prison.
But the committee was quick to shut down any suggestion of a deal, stating that it “will not consider granting congressional immunity for her testimony.”
Pressed about the matter at a campaign stop, the president said Monday (July 28) he had the authority to pardon Maxwell but added: “Nobody’s approached me about it” and that it would be “inappropriate to talk about it," cited by ABC News.
When asked again on Tuesday (July 29) about Epstein and Maxwell, he replied bluntly: “Be quiet.”