Epstein’s “suicide record”: the unusual and fake video released by the Trump administration

The US Department of Justice published tonight (between Monday and Tuesday) another collection of documents relating to the investigation of the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein – and one of them particularly caught the public’s attention. In a video published by the administration and quickly circulated on social networks, Epstein’s suicide is allegedly recorded in his prison cell – but the US media rushed to report that the video was fake, and it was removed from the Ministry of Justice website.

In the 12-second video, a white-haired man, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, is seen kneeling on the floor of a prison cell and trying to suffocate himself. The time stamp on the video is only about two hours before Epstein was found dead, with a noose around his neck, in a New York correctional facility.

But the video has been on YouTube since 2020, when the original advertiser stated in the caption that he created it “for the sake of experimenting” with 3D graphics. An official in the administration also confirmed to the “New York Post” that it was a forgery. The video was later removed from the website of the Ministry of Justice.

According to the report, the video apparently originates from a letter sent to the investigators by a person who asked to verify its content. However, the video that was published without any explanation already caused a stir on the Internet, when many believed that real documentation of Epstein’s death had been revealed.

The lack of official documentation of Epstein’s suicide was over the years one of the main sources of the conspiracy theories surrounding his death. Many influencers in the US used this to promote claims that the powerful sex offender was murdered by unknown parties.

The Trump administration is expected to continue releasing new materials from the Epstein investigation in the coming weeks, in accordance with the law passed by Congress. This is not the first time that the publication of the materials caused an uproar – many of the published screens were blacked out, and a photo of President Trump published as part of the investigation materials was removed without explanation. The president addressed the release of the materials overnight, saying they were “distracting” the public from the success of the Republican Party.