Attorney General Pam Bondi was reportedly pressed during a tense television exchange Monday about the unexplained disappearance of critical surveillance footage from Jeffrey Epstein’s jail cell the night of his death.
Her sharp response — and the lingering mystery around the footage — once again reignited scrutiny over the government’s handling of the case.
During an appearance on Newsmax, Bondi was questioned by host Rob Finnerty about a “missing minute” of video from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, where Epstein was found dead in August 2019.
Finnerty referenced claims that the Department of Justice could not locate the surveillance footage from a key moment on the night Epstein allegedly took his own life.
“Have you seen the one minute that’s missing?” Finnerty asked, pointing to what many skeptics regard as a suspicious lapse in video evidence. “I’ve never seen it,” he added. “I don’t know if it exists.”
Bondi, who served as a surrogate for President Trump and has frequently defended the Justice Department’s actions in the Epstein case, responded with visible irritation. “That’s the minute we’re looking for,” she said curtly, adding, “That’s the minute we all want.”
The exchange highlighted the continuing unease surrounding Epstein’s death, which the New York City medical examiner ruled a suicide — a conclusion that has been widely questioned across the political spectrum.
Bondi sought to downplay the insinuations, emphasizing that numerous investigations, including those under the Trump administration, found no evidence of foul play.
“Everybody wants to know what happened in that moment,” Bondi acknowledged. “But people need to stop using it for political purposes.”
Still, Finnerty’s questions mirrored growing calls for transparency, particularly from critics who believe the government — regardless of party — has failed to provide a full accounting of Epstein’s final hours.
Despite multiple internal reviews and a lengthy report from the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General, many basic questions remain unanswered: Why was Epstein left unsupervised? Why were the guards asleep? And why does the surveillance timeline have gaps?
Bondi insisted there was no cover-up, but did not directly explain the missing footage. “We all want the truth,” she said. For many Americans, that truth remains elusive — and the missing minute has come to symbolize it.
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