Each analyses discovered that the 2 clips, labeled “2025-05-22 16-35-21.mp4” and “2025-05-22 21-12-48.mp4,” have been stitched collectively. The primary clip is 4 hours, 19 minutes, and 16 seconds lengthy, however solely the primary 4 hours, 16 minutes, and 23.368 seconds seems within the printed model, which means practically 2 minutes and 53 seconds have been reduce from the top. In keeping with the metadata, the reduce happens simply at 11:58:58 pm. The reduce is milliseconds earlier than the one-minute recording hole that Bondi mentioned was attributable to a quirk of the surveillance system. The second clip, “2025-05-22 21-12-48.mp4,” picks up instantly afterward, persevering with the footage from 12:00:00 am till 6:40:00 am.
WIRED reviewed its findings with two impartial video forensics specialists, every with over 15 years of expertise in Premiere and video manufacturing, who confirmed that the edit occurred simply earlier than the lacking minute mark and that roughly three minutes of footage have been reduce from the unique clip.
The FBI launched each “uncooked” and enhanced variations of the video. Each variations embody inside remark markers, annotations sometimes utilized in modifying software program to flag moments of curiosity. The improved model, which the FBI known as Video 2, accommodates 15 such markers that apparently correspond to seen motion close to “46 door” at New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Heart (MCC). This door is close to the cell block the place Epstein was being held whereas awaiting trial on intercourse trafficking fees. These markers seem to have been left by analysts throughout their overview, however they don’t embody the unique remark textual content.
In keeping with a 2023 report by the DOJ’s Workplace of the Inspector Normal (OIG), solely two cameras within the neighborhood of the Particular Housing Unit (SHU), the world of the MCC the place Epstein was held, have been filming and recording on the time of his loss of life. In keeping with the report, the digital camera that recorded the footage the DOJ launched July 7 captured video of a big portion of the SHU widespread space and components of the stairways main to varied “tiers,” considered one of which housed Epstein’s cell.
The OIG report notes that the MCC’s surveillance system was outdated on the time of Epstein’s loss of life, “had not been correctly maintained,” and that the DVR exhausting drives that saved the video information “continuously malfunctioned and wanted to get replaced.”
Each the 2023 OIG report and the DOJ-FBI memo printed final week state that anybody getting into or trying to entry the tier containing Epstein’s cell from the SHU widespread space on August 9 or 10, 2019, would have been seen on that digital camera. Nevertheless, Epstein’s cell door itself was not inside the digital camera’s subject of view. The stairway resulting in the tier the place he was held was additionally partially obstructed and tough to see clearly on the video. (A second digital camera, which lined the “ninth-floor fireplace exit and two of the ground’s 4 elevators,” was additionally filming on the time, in line with the OIG report.)
Amid backlash from supporters and critics alike, President Donald Trump defended Bondi on Saturday, saying she was doing a “incredible job.”
“What’s occurring with my ‘boys’ and, in some instances, ‘gals?’ They’re all going after Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi, who’s doing a FANTASTIC JOB!” Trump wrote in a publish on Reality Social. “We’re on one Workforce, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s taking place. We’ve a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘egocentric folks’ try to harm it, throughout a man who by no means dies, Jeffrey Epstein.”