Seeking to put to bed conspiracies that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein didn’t end his own life, Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino told Fox & Friends on Thursday that they would soon release surveillance footage from the New York City federal jail where the late financier was found dead.
While officials in the first Trump administration ruled in 2019 that Epstein had died of a suicide, conspiracies raged that he was killed for his connections and potential leverage against high-profile celebrities and world leaders.
The footage, Boningo promised, would reveal that nobody had entered or approached Epstein’s cell at the time of his death. He also stressed that no forensic evidence was found that would have suggested that another person was present.
“There is a video, and when you look at the video — and we will release it, we’re working on cleaning it up to make sure you have an enhanced – and we will give the original so you don’t think there are any shenanigans – you will see no one in there but him. There’s just nobody there,” Bongino said.
“There’s no DNA, there’s no audio, there’s no fingerprints, there’s no suspects, there’s no accomplices, there’s no tips, there is nothing,” he added.
“There’s video clear as day,” he added. “He’s the only person in there and the only person coming out. You can see it.”
FBI Director Kash Patel also affirmed in a Wednesday night interview with Fox News that Epstein had ended his own life but promised new information would be made available to the public.
“We are diligently working on that,” Patel said. “It takes time to go through years of investigations.”
Conspiracy theories on Jeffrey Epstein's death
While many of the rumors circulating focus on Epstein’s powerful connections, the New York Post noted that there were several irregularities that contributed to public mistrust in the case.
Two cameras outside Epstein’s cell reportedly malfunctioned, according to the New York Post, and two guards neglected to check in on him every 30 minutes after falling asleep.
Epstein was said to have attempted suicide three weeks prior to his death and was meant to be on suicide watch.