Newly released surveillance footage from Jeffrey Epstein’s prison unit has exposed a glaring hole in Attorney General Pam Bondi’s long-standing explanation for a mysteriously missing minute on the night of his death—reigniting public skepticism and political outrage over the government’s handling of the case.
Back in July, nearly 11 hours of prison surveillance video were released by the Justice Department and FBI. But it didn’t take long for people to notice a suspicious 60-second gap, occurring just hours before Epstein was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in August 2019.
At the time, Bondi chalked it up to routine procedure, claiming the prison’s security system “automatically cut out for one minute” each night due to a “system reset.”
Now we know that explanation doesn’t hold water.
This week, a new data dump dropped online around 6 p.m. Tuesday, including two additional hours of footage—this time, with the missing minute fully intact. The previously unreleased segment, between 11:59 p.m. on August 9 and midnight on August 10, shows guards milling around Epstein’s cell but little else of note.
While the footage doesn’t show anything explosive in itself, its very existence contradicts Bondi’s story. Her “system reset” defense has officially crumbled.
The missing minute wasn’t missing because of a nightly system reboot. It was edited out—plain and simple.
That detail matters. A forensic review of the original July footage had already shown multiple edits, sparking suspicion across the political spectrum. MAGA circles erupted, seizing on the inconsistency as further proof that something—or someone—was being covered up.
And it’s not just the missing minute fueling the fire. The full release, which includes emails, court filings, audio recordings, and thousands of pages of documents, has triggered another wave of scrutiny over the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death.
In the newly available footage, Epstein can be seen being escorted through the Metropolitan Correctional Center to make a phone call. Later that night, he would be found unresponsive in his cell at 6:30 a.m., in what was officially ruled a suicide. The FBI, DOJ Inspector General, and New York City Medical Examiner’s Office have all signed off on that conclusion. But not everyone’s buying it.
“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Donald Trump told New York magazine back in 2002. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
That quote continues to haunt discussions of Epstein’s elite circle of friends—a network the public still hasn’t seen in full. And that’s the problem, according to critics on both sides of the aisle.
Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia blasted the latest release, calling it a smoke-and-mirrors stunt by House Republicans. “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,” he said Tuesday.
“There is no mention of any client list or anything that improves transparency or justice for victims,” Garcia added. “House Republicans are trying to make a spectacle of releasing already-public documents.”
He also didn’t mince words when calling out Bondi directly: “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.”
In a video posted to X (formerly Twitter), Garcia said the documents released Tuesday had already been “given to right-wing influencers back in February.” His message was blunt: “Release all the files NOW.”
Even some Republicans are starting to break ranks. Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie, no stranger to opposing Trump, didn’t hold back on MSNBC this week.
“I actually don’t think he’s done anything criminal,” Massie said of Trump. “I think he may be covering for some rich and powerful people that are friends of his.”
He went further, pointing out that billionaires allegedly linked to Epstein were now running ads against him in Kentucky. “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 Rep. Jim McGovern echoed the frustration in his own X post: “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.”
So far, Bondi’s office hasn’t responded to multiple requests for comment. But with the “missing minute” now recovered—and Bondi’s excuse unraveling—those calls are only going to grow louder.
The original tape jumped from 11:58 p.m. straight to midnight—but the recovered clip reveals guards walking toward Epstein’s cell at 11:59:39, just seconds before midnight. Watch the clip below:
The missing minute from Jeffrey Epstein’s surveillance footage has finally been released.
The original tape jumped from 11:58 p.m. straight to midnight—but the recovered clip reveals guards walking toward Epstein’s cell at 11:59:39, just seconds before midnight. pic.twitter.com/fi4yXML24X
— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) September 2, 2025
