US prosecutors have revealed that surveillance footage from Jeffrey Epstein's first suspected suicide attempt was accidentally destroyed. The jail mistakenly saved video from the wrong cell, they said.
The disgraced financier, a convicted sex offender, first tried to kill himself on 25 July last year, and later died after hanging himself in his cell on 10 August while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. He had pleaded not guilty to abusing dozens of girls, some as young as 14.
In a letter filed by Assistant US Attorneys Jason Swergold and Maurene Comey, prosecutors said the footage for the correct date and time captured a different tier of the prison rather than the cell where Epstein was housed. 'The requested video no longer exists on the backup system and has not since at least August 2019 as a result of technical errors,' the letter said.
The request for the video was made by a lawyer for Nicholas Tartaglione, a former New York police officer who shared a cell with Epstein in July and is charged with homicide in an unrelated case. The attorney argued the footage could show his client acting 'admirably', possibly helping Epstein.
After the first incident, Epstein was placed on suicide watch and later moved to a different cell. Two prison guards have since been accused of failing to check on him and falsifying records to say they had done so.
New York-born Epstein worked as a teacher before moving into finance, and was known for his wealth and connections to prominent figures including President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton and the UK's Prince Andrew. He had been accused of paying girls under 18 to perform sex acts between 2002 and 2005, and avoided similar charges in a controversial 2008 deal.
