[OC] The Footage of Epstein’s Cell is shady as hell if you go back and read the reporting on it, I thought it was erased?

So when Epstein first died, there were a lot of really contradictory reports on what was happening so I just used the Google advanced search to break out the articles by date to put the trajectory of what Trump's first administration was saying happened. The Trump administration released the footage today, so let's just read the reporting as it went from Barr's justice department:

August 27, 2019

Footage from camera outside Jeffrey Epstein's cell deemed unusable

There is CCTV footage outside of Epstein's cell and from the hallway that is less direct, but the footage from right outside his door is unusable. The hallway footage is much clearer. Nobody is allowed to see it and the government won't say what is on it. The important notes though are that a.) the government first told reporters that the footage from outside the door is "unusable" and b.) that there are two different cameras that you can see the entrance to his cell from.

November 2019

The Justice Department says no one entered Jeffrey Epstein's cell the night he died, refuting the conspiracy theory that he was murdered

Except…sike! It turns out that the footage shows that nobody entered or approached the cell the night Epstein died. However the articles from November do not say anything about the footage being missing, but it says that the indictment against the two security guards included details about the footage. It is not clear if this is the outside of the cell footage or the down the hall footage, but I think it's the hallway footage after seeing the July 2025 video. Multiple time stamps are referenced in the article about specific things happening that can be seen on the video. So clearly someone was lying in August.

According to the indictment, video footage shows that Epstein was escorted to his cell at 7:49 p.m. on August 9. At 10 p.m., officers were supposed to perform a mandated count on the cells.

Instead, they signed a slip falsely claiming a check had been performed. At 10:30 p.m., Noel "briefly walked up to, then walked back from, the door to the tier in which Epstein was housed," according to the indictment, which cites the surveillance footage.

"This was the last time anyone, including any correctional officer, walked up to, let alone entered, the only entrance to the tier in which Epstein was housed until approximately 6:30 a.m. on August 10," the indictment reads.

December 2019

‘Missing’ jail video from first Jeffrey Epstein suicide attempt has been found, prosecutors tell judge

This is confusing because it is not clear if this is in reference to the outside the door footage or the down the hall footage. Apparently it was "missing" – no mention of it being "unusable" from before. The Metropolitan Correctional Center apparently has copies of all of this the entire time. The article says that "prosecutors said [the video] was actually preserved by jail staff as previously requested," implying that they told people it was not preserved. Epstein's cellmate Nicholas Tartaglione sued for it and was told by the US Attorney's that the surveilence showed that nobody entered, however Tartaglione's lawyer is cited in this article as being denied access to watching the video. Since it is from the lawsuit, maybe it was just the down the hall footage? I think they probably said the outside the cell footage was missing and that the hallway footage shows this but it's not really addressed.

January 10, 2020

Jeffrey Epstein: Jail CCTV erased by 'technical errors'

And it turns out that he didn't see it because…the jail's CCTV video was "erased by technical errors!" The article says that:

A letter filed by Assistant US Attorneys Jason Swergold and Maurene Comey said "the footage contained on the preserved video was for the correct date and time, but captured a different tier than the one where Cell-1 was located", New York City media report.

"The requested video no longer exists on the backup system and has not since at least August 2019 as a result of technical errors."

So then why not show him the hallway footage that was released today? I think they mean the outside the cell footage again was erased but then also wouldn't show Tartiglione's lawyer the hallway footage either.

So to be clear:

The video outside the cell is unusable.

There is also video down the hallway that is clear. They are often referred to interchangeably.

The video from outside the cell shows no one entered Epstein's cell.

The video from outside the cell is missing.

The video from outside the cell has been found, you can see it soon. Again, it does not show anyone entering Epstein's cell.

The video from outside Epstein's cell was erased and actually didn't film from outside of Epstein's cell in the first place and we didn't back it up.

July 7, 2025

Trump’s DOJ Releases Epstein Prison Footage to Support Suicide Ruling

Except sike again! They had it this whole time. Except they are only releasing the hallway camera, NOT the one that shows his door. That is probably the one that is unusable, missing, found or deleted depending on when they want to talk about it.

So what about the outside the cell footage?