CCTV footage taken outside disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s cell has now been released, six years after the notorious paedophile was found dead.
Around 11 hours of CCTV footage taken from inside the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York City on August 9 and 10 2019 has been publicly revealed for the first time, amide a probe into his death.
Following his arrest on multiple charges, including sex trafficking, he was found unresponsive in his cell early in the morning of August 10 and was later declared dead in hospital.
Coroners at the time ruled he had committed suicide by hanging, and now an FBI and Department of Justice (DoJ) investigation into his death has concluded the same.
The footage, released as part of the investigation that was started following a campaign pledge by US president Donald Trump, appears to show the orange-clad paedophile being led to his cells by a guard and being trailed by a second one at 7.49pm on the night of August 9.
The two guards and Epstein were apparently seen walking across the common area as they move to his cell in the video, according to US news site Axios.
The DoJ said that while the footage, which was taken between 7.40pm and 6.40am the next day, doesn’t show his cell door, it would capture anyone moving to it.
And other than the guards leaving, no one else walks to or from Epstein’s cell. A prior DoJ report said that between 10.40 p.m. on August 9 and about 6.30 a.m. on August 10, no one was seen entering Epstein’s cell tier.
The joint investigation has concluded that Epstein was not murdered, nor did he blackmail powerful figures or keep a ‘client list.’
The well-connected financier and Maxwell kept a wide circle of friends from fellow billionaires to politicians like Trump and Clinton, and entertainment icons.
The memo from the FBI and DOJ announced that no one involved in the Epstein case will follow former right-hand woman Ghislaine Maxwell to prison, as no further charges will be filed.
Epstein’s death led to several conspiracy theories and a general hunger for knowledge regarding his crimes.
In 2020, prosecutors said that surveillance footage from Epstein’s first suicide attempt was destroyed by accident.
He first attempted to take his own life in July 2019, and was found semi-conscious in his cell with injuries to his neck.
After this, he was placed on suicide watch before he was moved to federal prison, where he allegedly took his own life.
In May, the FBI’s deputy director Dan Bongino confirmed the footage was set to be released, following a campaign pledge by US president Donald Trump.
The issue of Epstein’s death has charged many in Trump’s sphere.
In March, his attorney general Pam Bondi released hundreds of pages detailing information connected to Epstein, claiming to have disclosed ‘a lot of names’ and flight logs that would ‘make you sick.’
The first wave of documents have largely been circulating in the public domain for years and so far are yet to include any new bombshells, leading to great disappointment from the public.
‘What you’re going to see, hopefully tomorrow, is a lot of flight logs, a lot of names, a lot of information,’ Bondi previewed on Fox.
‘But, it’s pretty sick what that man did, along with his co-defendant,’ referring to Ghislaine Maxwell.
The officially declassified material included flight logs, Epstein’s infamous contact book, an evidence list and a masseuse list in ten different links posted to the Department of Justice website.
The contact list, which has previously circulated in various forms, shows redacted information for dozens of the Hollywood, political and fashion elite and was purportedly compiled by Epstein and his longtime confidante Maxwell. Personal contact information was redacted throughout the list.
FBI Director Kash Patel had been a skeptic of the official findings behind Epstein’s death, however, he told Joe Rogan that since he’d taken over the bureau, he hadn’t found ‘what you want,’ which he described as ‘some guy or gal committing felonies.’
‘If I had it, I’d be the first guy to bring this case hard and fast,’ Patel claimed.
He added that his team at the FBI has viewed everything they have been given lawful access to from the infamous island.
Epstein’s ‘pedo island’ aka Little Saint James in the US Virgin Islands was a focal point of his horrific child-sex-trafficking operation.
It has long been believed that Epstein hosted a wide array of rich and famous clients at the island.
Patel said that the bureau is doing the best that they can and encouraged anyone with information to get in touch.
‘I got here 100 days ago. I can’t be held to account for 20 years of failures,’ he said.
Though Patel claimed that his FBI will ‘give you everything we can’ he does have some boundaries set around Epstein’s victims.
‘Remember, we’re not gonna’ re-victimize women. We’re not gonna’ put that s*** back out there. It’s not happening because then, he wins.’
Allegations of Epstein’s sexual predation of young girls first came out in 2005, when the parents of a 14-year-old told Florida police that the financier has molested their daughter at his Palm Beach house.
Following a raid at his home, cops found several photos of young girls throughout.
But he escaped harsh punishment, cutting a deal with prosecutors to avoid federal charges.
Instead, he received an 18-month prison sentence saw that him freely leave jail on ‘work release’ for 12 hours a day, six days a week.
He was released on probation after just 13 months.
From 2008 onwards, he was listed on New York’s sex offenders register at level three, a lifelong designation that meant he was at high risk of reoffending.
Despite this, he was able to maintain his properties and assets.
Two years later, he was pictured partying with disgraced Prince Andrew in Central Park.
Prince Andrew said in a now-infamous interview with the BBC that he had travelled to New York to end his friendship with him, having known him since 1999.
The interview came following allegations made by Virginia Giuffre in which she claimed to have been made to sleep with the Prince when she was 17.
Epstein was arrested in 2019 as he flew back to New York from Paris. Prosecutors reportedly sought to seize his New York mansion, where some of the abuse is alleged to have been committed.
