A newly released Justice Department video has cast fresh doubt on the official account of Jeffrey Epstein’s final night, showing prison guards casually chatting and writing notes instead of carrying out mandatory checks on the convicted sex offender.
The footage, first obtained by the New York Post, arrives just days after viral videos appeared to show an American man driving down I-95, whom internet users insisted was Epstein himself, alive and well.
The black-and-white surveillance clip captures guards Tova Noel and Michael Thomas inside the Special Housing Unit at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center on 10 August 2019.
At around 3:15 am, the pair is seen wandering the guards’ station, scribbling on paper and talking, rather than performing the required half-hourly rounds on high-risk inmates, including Epstein, who was held just down the stairs.
Epstein had last been checked at 10:30 pm the previous evening. He was pronounced dead by suicide sometime between then and 6:30 am, when Noel and Thomas discovered him during the breakfast round.
A glaring orange sign taped beside the computer left no room for confusion: “Mandatory rounds must be conducted every 30 minutes on Epstein, as per God!!!” Ward supervisor Roberto Grijalva told investigators he had posted the notice himself at 2 pm before leaving for the weekend.
“Whoever was there, they watched, saw that paper,” he said. By Monday, the sign had vanished.
Noel and Thomas were later accused of falsifying their logs to pretend they had checked on Epstein. Both were fired, but federal prosecutors eventually dropped the criminal charges.
Grijalva also revealed that Epstein’s cellmate had been removed the day before, leaving the financier alone, against protocol for a suicide watch.
Epstein had complained of being cold and was given extra orange bedsheets; he even asked Grijalva for a sweater, but the request was refused.
Photographs from the cell later released showed a torn strip of bedsheet tied into a noose and hanging from the top bunk. EMTs worked on Epstein’s body after he was found unresponsive.
The timing of the video’s emergence has reignited long-standing conspiracy theories. Epstein’s death came while he awaited trial on federal sex-trafficking charges involving dozens of underage girls.
His little black book and flight logs had already linked him to presidents, princes, billionaires, and Hollywood stars. Many refuse to believe the official suicide verdict, pointing to malfunctioning cameras, sleeping guards, and the removal of his cellmate as evidence of foul play.
Last week, the theories exploded again when footage surfaced of Andrew Posey, a Florida man known locally as “Palm Beach Pete,” driving on Interstate 95. The resemblance was so uncanny that thousands of commenters declared Epstein had faked his death and was living freely.
Social media erupted with side-by-side comparisons and claims he had been “seen alive two days ago.” Posey, however, has now put the rumours to rest.
Also Read: Fresh Evidence Exposes What DOJ Has Been Doing With Epstein’s Files
He created social-media accounts under the handle @not.epstein and addressed the frenzy directly. “This is nothing new for me,” he said. He recalled previously going viral after appearing in the background of a Real Housewives episode and at a hockey game with his children.
“I’m not going to change. This guy is dead, and he was a really bad person, and I can hold my head high. I didn’t do anything. I just happened to have similar looks, though I’m the better-looking version.”
The Metropolitan Correctional Center has since closed amid multiple scandals. Noel and Thomas walked away with no criminal record thanks to union protections and what critics call a culture of negligence. Meanwhile, Epstein’s victims continue to pursue justice through civil suits against his estate and alleged co-conspirators.
An online commenters have reacted. One noting: “They were probably shopping on Amazon instead of watching a monster.” Another wrote simply: “Told to be elsewhere.”
