From CBS News: In the weeks after Jeffrey Epstein died at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan, in August 2019, then-Attorney General William Barr said his “personal review” of surveillance footage clearly showed that no one entered the area where Epstein was housed, leading him to agree with the conclusion of the medical examiner that Epstein had died by suicide.
But a CBS News analysis of the video the FBI made public earlier this month reveals that the recording doesn’t provide a clear view of the entrance to Epstein’s cell block — one of several contradictions between officials’ descriptions of the video and the video itself.
CBS News also digitally reconstructed the Special Housing Unit, or SHU, where Epstein was held, using diagrams and descriptions from the 2023 report on Epstein released by the Justice Department inspector general. The CBS News review found the video does little to provide evidence to support claims that were later made by federal officials. Additionally, CBS News has identified multiple inconsistencies between that report and the video that raise serious questions about the accuracy of witness statements and the thoroughness of the government’s investigation.
The report notes several issues that raise questions, but the most prominently discussed question raised involves an orange “blob.”
The blob refers to an image that appears on the video at about 10:40 p.m. At the corner of the screen, an orange shape can be seen on the stairs leading to the tier Epstein’s cell was on.
The official report explains the blob, saying, “Through review and analysis of the SHU video footage, witness statements, and BOP records, the OIG determined that at approximately 10:40 p.m. a CO [corrections officer], believed to be Noel, carried linen or inmate clothing up to the L Tier, which was the last time any CO approached the only entrance to the SHU tier in which Epstein was housed.”
CBS contends that the video forensic experts they consulted with “were skeptical about that interpretation and suggested that the shape could be a person dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit climbing the stairs.”
Conor McCourt, a retired NYPD sergeant and forensic video expert, told CBS News, “Based on the limited video, it’s more likely it’s a person in an [orange] uniform.”
Another issue CBS found on the tape was the FBI’s conclusion that “anyone entering or attempting to enter the tier where Epstein’s cell was located from the SHU common area would have been captured by this footage.”
According to CBS, the video does not support the finding that Epstein was in the holding area. It shows Epstein in his cell in the L Block, accessible via a staircase from the Special Housing Unit’s common area. The staircase is almost entirely out of view in the video, so Epstein is never seen ascending it.
Other issues the outlet found include:
- A cursor and a menu appear on screen, possibly indicating it is a recording of the original
- The video appears to be sped up
- The notorious and previously explained “missing minute”
- An extra and unidentified individual
- A mix-up over the actions of Tova Noel and another female staff member
- Seeming discrepancy over which staff members are seen entering the Epstein unit
- Questions about whether other cameras were recording
CBS notes that the “review doesn’t refute the conclusion that Epstein died by suicide,” only that “it raises questions about the strength and credibility of the government’s investigation, which appears to have drawn conclusions from the video that are not readily observable.”
