(Ken Silva, Headline USA) As the Justice Department continues to release thousands of records about the deceased sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein—an effort to comply with legislation pushing for transparency about the case—one of the more bizarre disclosures pertains to Epstein’s purported August 2019 suicide.
The disclosure shows a 12-second computer-generated clip of what resembles Epstein inside his jail cell, attempting to kill himself. The footage is clearly fake, and there were no cameras inside Epstein’s cell at the time of his death.
The footage appears to have been posted on YouTube in 2020. According to the Wall Street Journal, the footage was part of the “Epstein Files” because it was sent to the FBI in 2021 by someone who asked investigators whether it was real. The person told the FBI that he was documenting “a substantial cover-up of a suicide scandal.”
Holy shit, the feds actually uploaded this 12 second video showing what appears to be Epstein attempting suicide in jail.
The only problem is that is fake and was uploaded 5 years ago on YouTube.
Did they actually think people wouldn’t notice? 😂 pic.twitter.com/9YRUJB8jWb
— Champagne Joshi (@JoshWalkos) December 23, 2025
The phony footage is the latest DOJ disclosure of misinformation about Epstein’s death. In July, the government released footage of his prison wing that was “modified,” according to tech publication WIRED.
“Metadata embedded in the video and analyzed by WIRED and independent video forensics experts shows that rather than being a direct export from the prison’s surveillance system, the footage was modified, likely using the professional editing tool Adobe Premiere Pro. The file appears to have been assembled from at least two source clips, saved multiple times, exported, and then uploaded to the DOJ’s website, where it was presented as ‘raw’ footage,” WIRED reported at the time.
“Experts caution that it’s unclear what exactly was changed, and that the metadata does not prove deceptive manipulation.”
Along with WIRED’s investigation about the modified footage, online sleuths found around the same time that at least a minute of the roughly 11-hour video is missing. The video cuts out at 11:58:59, and restarts right at midnight on August 10, 2019—an occurrence that Bondi blamed on the prison’s antiquated video system.
The purpose of releasing the prison footage was ostensibly to show the public that no one had access to Epstein’s cell the night before he was found dead in his cell on Aug. 10, 2019. However, as Headline USA has explained, the footage does not provide evidence that Epstein killed himself. The camera only showed a tiny sliver of a staircase leading to Epstein’s cell. The camera in Epstein’s cell block, which had at least three other inmates, wasn’t recording. Nor was the camera covering one of the elevator bays that led to Epstein’s floor.
Epstein’s death was ruled a suicide by hanging after he was found dead in his jail cell on August 10, 2019. But his lawyers contested that claim. Skeptics point to malfunctioning surveillance cameras, sleeping guards, and broken bones in Epstein’s neck as indications that his death was something other than suicide.
Because of Epstein’s extensive fraternization with high-profile politicians and celebrities such as Bill Clinton, former Israeli PM Ehud Barak, Prince Andrew and Bill Gates and many more, some claim that Epstein’s death was actually a hit job to silence him. Proponents of that theory include Epstein’s former partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, who’s serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.
“I believe that he was murdered. I was shocked, and I wondered, ‘How did this happen?’ Because I was sure he was going to appeal, and I was sure he was covered by the non-prosecution agreement,” Maxwell told British reporter Jeremy Kyle of TalkTV in 2023.
The non-prosecution agreement referenced by Maxwell was a sweetheart deal Epstein signed with the Department of Justice in 2008, in which he pleaded guilty to a state charge of procuring for prostitution a girl below the age of 18. Epstein was housed in a private wing of the Palm Beach County Stockade, and was reportedly allowed to leave the jail on “work release” for up to 12 hours a day.
After the Miami Herald published an expose on Epstein and his non-prosecution agreement in late 2018, Epstein was arrested again on July 6, 2019, on federal charges for the sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
