A mysterious “orange shape” seen on surveillance footage near Jeffrey Epstein’s cell before his death has caused forensic experts and Justice Department officials to clash over what – or who – it may be.
In the Bureau of Prisons video obtained and reviewed by CBS News, a shadowy figure moved towards the sex offender’s cell block in New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center at about 10.40 p.m. on August 9, 2019, just hours before Epstein was found hanged.
According to a report by the DOJ’s Office of Inspector General, the orange blob is believed to be a correctional officer “carrying linen or inmate clothing” up the stairs to the convicted sex trafficker’s tier.
Forensic video analysts who reviewed the footage as part of the news network’s investigation argued that the figure could just as easily have been a person wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, and not just carrying it.
“Based on the limited video, it’s more likely it’s a person in an [orange] uniform,” according to Conor McCourt, a retired sergeant for the New York City Police Department and forensic video expert.
The experts’ analysis challenges the DOJ and the FBI’s claim that no one could have entered Epstein’s cell and that the financier died by suicide.
The FBI claimed that surveillance cameras would have captured anyone entering the special housing unit or Epstein’s tier on video.
However, the experts contest that the camera does not cover the main entrance of the unit, the staircase in full leading to Epstein’s cell, or his cell door.
“To say that there’s no way that someone could get to that — the stairs up to his room — without being seen is false,” video forensics expert Jim Stafford concluded.
CBS News said that four other leading forensics experts interviewed “concurred” with Stafford’s analysis.
Earlier this month, the DOJ and FBI said they released 11 hours of “full raw” surveillance footage from inside the jail. Experts have also cast doubt on that claim in an effort to undermine conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein’s suicide.
The presence of a cursor and on-screen menu indicates that it was likely a screen capture rather than the raw footage exported directly from the prison’s digital video recorder system.
Both experts agreed the video was unlikely to have been an export of the raw footage and that, instead, it appears to be two separate segments stitched together.
Stafford, who analyzed the video’s metadata, said it showed the file was first created on May 23 of this year and was not from 2019.
The Office of the Inspector General addressed the theories raised by CBS in a statement to the network.
“The OIG appreciates the careful review of our report,” it said. “Our comprehensive assessment of the circumstances over the weeks, days, and hours before Epstein’s death included the effects of the longstanding, chronic staffing crisis in the BOP and the BOP’s failure to provide and maintain quality camera coverage within its facilities.”
“As CBS notes, nothing in its analysis changed or modified the OIG’s conclusions or recommendations,” the statement concluded.
CBS News’s report is the latest in a growing list of unresolved questions surrounding the video, as scrutiny over the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein investigation intensifies.
Earlier this month, an analysis by Wired challenged the administration’s claims that the footage was unedited.
Forensic experts who worked with the magazine to analyze the metadata embedded in the video concluded that the footage had been “modified,” most likely using Adobe Premiere Pro editing software.
Professor Hany Farid, a digital forensics and misinformation expert at UC Berkeley, told Wired that the footage would not be considered valid evidence in court. Farid questioned why the aspect ratio “suddenly” shifts.
Attorney General Pam Bondi had already faced backlash after one minute of footage appeared to be missing from the jail video capturing Epstein’s final hours.
A digital clock visible on the bottom left corner of the footage jumps from 11:58:58 p.m. to 12:00:00 a.m.
Bondi blamed an outdated recording system that produced the video, claiming it resets every day at midnight and skips the same minute each evening.
The Independent has contacted the DOJ for more information.
