&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Epstein files reveal FBI authorised destruction of ‘Master Copy’ prison footage in 2024")
In the latest tranche of Epstein files released on January 30, 2026, an FBI correspondence reveals that an FBI agent sought and granted authorisation of the erasure of the footage of Epstein's cell as it was “no longer pertinent” to the investigation. The authorisation was given on June 25, 2024. The evidence item labelled 1B60, according to a document in the Epstein files, was the “master copy” of the footage.
"As this case was already closed and AUSA concurred on 08/26/2024 with agency evidence handling procedures, authorisation was granted to destroy Item 1B60. Per FBI policy, if an evidence item remains undisposed, the investigative case file must remain open," read the justification of the erasure.
In May 2025, the FBI failed to release the complete footage of the day Epstein died in his cell. The silent surveillance video, which runs for nearly 11 hours, was released by the DOJ/FBI in mid 2025. It was intended to dispel conspiracy theories around Epstein's death, which had a gap of 62 seconds gap, which fuelled further speculations.
AG Pam Bondi explained that the gap was because of a routine reset, resulting in a lost minute every night. "There was a minute that was off that counter, and what we learned from Bureau of Prisons was every year, every night, they redo that video," Bondi said on July 8, noting that the system was old. “Every night is reset, so every night should have that same missing minute. So we're looking for that video as well, to show it's missing every night”
However, it seemed from the recent revelation that the master copy was erased, and later reconstruction of the footage led to some technical difficulty and missing minutes. The full footage, along with the missing minute, was later made public by the congressional oversight committee in September 2025, which supposedly did not show any unusual activity or unauthorised entries in Epstein's cell.
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