Security Footage of Epstein’s First 'Suicide' Attempt 'Accidentally Deleted'
Video of jailed sex offender's attempted suicide has 'disappeared,' prosecutors reveal
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Video from the security camera outside Jeffrey Epstein's jail cell during his first alleged "suicide attempt" has been "accidentally deleted," according to prosecutors.
According to a new court filing, footage of the deceased Clinton-linked child trafficker's original "attempted suicide" has now "disappeared" due to a "clerical error."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Swergold revealed in a Thursday court filing that the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) had preserved video footage within the investigation.
The surveillance footage was from the wrong cell, however.
“The Government has learned that the MCC inadvertently preserved video from the wrong tier within the MCC, and, as a result, video from outside the defendant’s cell on July 22–23, 2019 (i.e. the requested video) no longer exists,” the letter states.
The actual footage from Epstein's cell has now been permanently erased, the New York Post reported.
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According to a report by News Thud, Correctional Center officials apparently saved footage from the wrong floor, while deleting the correct footage from Epstein's cell.
Epstein, the disgraced financier who was facing federal sex-trafficking charges, was found semiconscious in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York around 1:27 a.m. on July 23.
But that video is now gone because MCC officials mistakenly saved footage from a different floor of the federal detention facility, prosecutors said in a court filing.
The FBI made the discovery last week while reviewing a copy of the video provided by MCC officials, prosecutors said.
“After reviewing the video, it appeared to the government that the footage contained on the preserved video was for the correct date and time, but captured a different tier than the one where (the cell housing Epstein and his cellmate] was located because the preserved video did not show corrections officers responding to any of the cells seen on the video.”
The filing was made in a case involving Nicholas Tartaglione, a former police officer in Westchester County, who was Epstein’s cellmate on the day of the incident.
Tartaglione is awaiting trial on charges of killing four men and burying them in his yard in 2016.
Prosecutors allege that the ex-cop was involved in a cocaine distribution conspiracy.
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The July incident was investigated as a possible suicide attempt, assault or ruse by Epstein to get himself transferred to a different facility.
Tartaglione’s lawyer, as part of an effort to exonerate his client, asked the jail to preserve footage from outside the cell.
The MCC agreed to the request but officials saved the wrong video because of a "clerical error."
“The MCC computer system listed a different, incorrect cell for Tartaglione,” prosecutors said in the court filing.
A backup video system was in place, but the requested video wasn’t available due to unspecified “technical errors,” the court filing says.
NBC News reported last August that Tartaglione was cleared of any wrongdoing in the July incident.
Epstein, 66, was found dead inside his cell three weeks later.
