The DOJ on Monday released shocking footage that appeared to be a recreation of Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide in his Manhattan jail cell — and it briefly set the Internet on fire until it was revealed to be fake.
The video was posted without explanation to the Justice Department’s website as part of its Epstein file dump — with the footage just the latest item among a trove of documents and images to be revealed after the complete horde was ordered released in November.
The grainy, 12-second, computer-generated clip showed a white-haired man in an orange jumpsuit struggling and jerking his head about while kneeling at the base of a jail-cell bunk bed.
The fake video appears to show Jeffrey Epstein trying to commit suicide. DOJ
The time stamp on the video was 4:29 a.m. Aug. 10, 2019 — two hours before the pedophile’s body was found in his cell that day at the Metropolitan Correctional Facility.
The scene in the video seemed to match Epstein’s cell, where officials determined he hung himself while awaiting trial for a litany of sex-trafficking charges.
But a closer examination of the clip showed things were not quite right – with a pile of orange prison clothes strewn about the ground looking like puddles without any texture, and the door to the jail cell not matching the one in Epstein’s behind-bars compartment.
It soon was revealed in another dumped document that the clip was in fact a fake video that circulated on 4chan and was flagged by investigators by a Florida conspiracy theorist.
A Trump administration official later confirmed to The Post that the video was bogus and has been on YouTube for years. It was eventually taken down from the DOJ’s site Monday.
But its appearance had already caused a flurry of interest online, with many viewers thinking footage of Epstein’s death had finally been revealed.
Epstein was arrested in 2019 and was about to face more charges before his suicide. Getty Images
That would have flown in the face of investigators’ long-standing narrative that the cameras watching Epstein’s cell malfunctioned on the night of his death and that no footage existed.
The lack of video has been one of the primary sources of conspiracy theories around Epstein’s death, with some people using it to fuel stories that the disgraced onetime powerful financier was murdered by shadowy forces.
Those theories were fanned during the first dump of Epstein files earlier this year, when a clip from outside Epstein’s cell block on the night he died was finally released – but a minute was missing just before midnight.
The DOJ insisted nothing was afoul and that the so-called “missing minute” was merely the result of the jail’s camera system recycling. A version was finally released to show that nothing nefarious happened during those 60 seconds.
Epstein had been on suicide watch before he died but was taken off and was supposed to have a cellmate living with him.
His cellmate was transferred off just a day before Epstein’s death.
The two guards who were supposed to be watching him at the time of his death also were sleeping on the job, and later admitted to falsifying reports to hide their blunder.
While a medical examiner determined Epstein died by self-inflicted hanging, an independent autopsy organized by the fiend’s brother suggested he suffered a neck fracture that tends to occur during strangulation murders.
All of those details have been fodder for conspiracy theories since Epstein’s death — despite extensive investigations and thousands of dumped files revealing no widespread cover-up or smoking gun.
Congress voted in November to have the Department of Justice release all of its Epstein files, with President Trump – who flipflopped on the issue after being re-elected – signing the bill within days.
The file dump began last week, and so far has revealed scores of photos – including alarming images of Epstein canoodling with very young girls – but so far no evidence of conspiracy has emerged.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.