FBI Destroyed Epstein Jail Video Master, Rebuilt Footage With 62‑Second Gap as Bondi Cited Unverified 'Nightly Reset' Theory
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FBI records show evidence item 1B60—the master Metropolitan Correctional Center surveillance archive covering Jeffrey Epstein’s final hours—was authorized for destruction in June 2024 and destroyed on Aug. 26, 2024; DOJ later ordered an FBI team to reconstruct footage from a NiceVision DVR and an agent on May 21, 2025 used screen‑capture software that inadvertently omitted 62 seconds from 11:58:58–12:00. Internal FBI notes reveal a video specialist merely "theorized"—without any way to verify—that the NiceVision system dropped about a minute at midnight each night, a speculative explanation Attorney General Pam Bondi publicly cited despite outside security experts calling the "nightly reset" implausible and DOJ declining to answer follow‑ups. Separately, a CBS frame‑by‑frame forensic review of surviving surveillance imagery suggests a partial view of a figure moving toward Epstein’s tier around 10:39 p.m., a detail critics say conflicts with public DOJ statements and underscores calls for greater transparency.
Federal Prisons and Oversight
Jeffrey Epstein Case
Justice Department Accountability