FBI says it will release video that officials say prove Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide

Jenny Jarvie, Los Angeles Times on May 29, 2025

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FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said Thursday the bureau plans to release a new video that shows Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier accused of orchestrating sex trafficking of young girls, killed himself in federal custody.

"There's video clear as day," Bongino said in an interview on "Fox & Friends." "He's the only person in there and the only person coming out. You can see it."

Although Epstein's death was ruled a suicide at the time, his sudden demise, and his long list of influential and wealthy friends, has sparked a rash of conspiracy theories suggesting he was the target of an orchestrated killing.

"I say to people, if you have a tip, let us know," Bongino told "Fox & Friends." "But 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. If you have it, I'm happy to see it."

Bongino, a former U.S. Secret Service agent and conservative political commentator, said the video does not show the "actual act" of Epstein killing himself.

Instead, he said, it proves that Epstein was the only person who came in or out of his New York jail cell before he was found dead on the morning of Aug. 10, 2019.

Bongino did not say when the FBI is going to release the video. The agency, he said, is taking time to clean up and enhance the video, but would release the original version to the public, "so you don't think there are any shenanigans."

"When you look at the video — and we will release it ... ," Bongino said, "you're going to see there's no one there but him. There's just nobody there."

Epstein, 66, a well-connected financial consultant who rubbed shoulders with many prominent politicians and celebrities, including Prince Andrew, President Trump and former President Clinton, was arrested and taken into federal custody in July 2019 and charged with sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors.

The indictment alleged that, between 2002 and 2005, Epstein sexually exploited and abused dozens of underage girls at his homes in Manhattan, N.Y., and Palm Beach, Fla., and other locations, by enticing them to engage in sex acts with him for cash. It also alleged Epstein paid several of his victims to recruit other underage girls to engage in similar sex acts.

Epstein had been taken off suicide watch before he was found dead, hanging by a bed sheet in his cell.

A 2023 Department of Justice report found that Epstein was able to kill himself a little over a month after he was imprisoned because of lax oversight at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.

Bongino's promise to release the video comes a week and a half after he and FBI Director Kash Patel dismissed conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein's death in a joint interview with Fox News.

"You know a suicide when you see one — and that's what that was," Patel said.

"He killed himself," Bongino agreed. "I've seen the whole file. He killed himself."

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