00:00This is the moment prison guards realize Jeffrey Epstein is dead.
00:30Newly uncovered footage, buried inside millions of government files and never highlighted before, shows guards suddenly sprinting back and forth outside Epstein's cell.
00:42And six years later, it's reopening one of the most disturbing mysteries in modern American history.
00:49Jeffrey Epstein was being held inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, charged with running a vast sex trafficking network involving underage girls.
01:00He was facing a trial that threatened to expose powerful people across politics, finance, and royalty.
01:07But on the morning of August 10, 2019, that trial vanished forever.
01:15The newly surfaced surveillance footage begins at 6.30 a.m.
01:19A prison guard approaches a desk near Epstein's cell.
01:23Moments later, the officer walks directly toward the cell.
01:28Roughly one minute passes.
01:30Then the tone shifts.
01:31A guard begins moving quickly back and forth between the desk and the cell area.
01:37Seconds later, two more guards appear.
01:40All three are now running.
01:42Epstein would be officially declared dead at 6.39 a.m., nine minutes after the first movement toward his cell.
01:49Authorities ruled Epstein's death a suicide, but they also acknowledged a series of stunning failures.
01:58From 10.40 p.m. at the night before until 6.30 a.m., no one entered the tier where Epstein was housed.
02:05Mandatory checks at 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. were never done.
02:10And at least two surveillance cameras outside Epstein's cell were not functioning that night, creating critical gaps in the timeline.
02:18Investigators later admitted they could not reconstruct the final hours with certainty.
02:24Even more questions surround the hours before Epstein was found.
02:29Another piece of surveillance footage appears to show an orange-colored shape moving up the stairs toward Epstein's tier late at night.
02:37The FBI suggested it might have been an escorted inmate.
02:41But the inspector general pushed back, noting inmates were on lockdown and suggesting it could have been someone carrying bedding or linen.
02:50To this day, no definitive explanation exists.
02:55Epstein had already avoided serious punishment once thanks to a controversial 2008 plea deal.
03:02The 2019 charges threatened to expose everything.
03:05Lawmakers reviewing recently unredacted files say the documents reference victims as young as nine years old and multiple powerful men whose identities remain protected.
03:18Some members of Congress are now openly accusing the Justice Department of a cover-up.
03:24Epstein's longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.
03:30But when subpoenaed by Congress, she refused to answer a single question, invoking her Fifth Amendment rights on advice of her lawyers.
03:39Ms. Maxwell, were you a close friend and confidant of Jeffrey Epstein?
03:45I would like to answer your question, but on the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer this question and any related questions.
03:55My habeas petition is pending in the Southern District of New York.
04:01I therefore invoke my right to silence under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
04:07Every question met with silence.
04:10Now, with this footage finally resurfacing, the same unanswered questions return.
04:16How did so many safeguards fail at once?
04:20Why were cameras down, checks missed, and timelines unclear?
04:23Was this simply negligence or something far more disturbing?
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