The controversy surrounding the federal government’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein’s death deepened this week after a new report revealed that surveillance footage from the disgraced financier’s prison cell was missing significantly more time than previously disclosed — nearly three minutes, not just one.

This revelation has only added fuel to growing public skepticism that the Department of Justice is engaged in a coordinated cover-up of what many believe was not suicide, but something far more sinister. Epstein, who was facing federal charges for running a vast sex trafficking network catering to elites, died in 2019 under highly suspicious circumstances at a federal facility in New York.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, defending her agency amid mounting criticism, recently downplayed what had become known as the “missing minute” from the cellblock footage. According to Bondi, the missing segment was simply due to a routine reset in the Bureau of Prisons’ surveillance system.

“So every night the video is reset. And every night should have the same minute missing,” she claimed. “So we’re looking for that video, to release that as well, showing that a minute is missing every night.”

But investigative reporting by Wired Magazine casts doubt on that official narrative. The tech publication found that the video wasn’t raw footage at all. In fact, editing software — Adobe Premiere Pro — had been used to splice together multiple clips, contrary to Bondi’s claims.

And then came the bombshell: Metadata embedded within the video files showed that one of the clips had originally been 2 minutes and 53 seconds longer than the version publicly released. This strongly suggests that the surveillance footage had been trimmed prior to release, and not simply the result of technical glitches.

Wired reported: “It’s unclear what, if anything, the minutes cut from the first clip showed,” but the discovery raises serious concerns about manipulation of evidence in what remains one of the most suspicious high-profile deaths in recent U.S. history.

The outlet added that when it reached out to the Department of Justice for comment at 7:40 a.m. Tuesday, it received a terse reply just two minutes later from DOJ public affairs officer Natalie Baldassarre: “Refer you to the FBI.” The FBI, unsurprisingly, declined to comment.

For many within President Donald J. Trump’s administration — now well into his second term — the issue is quickly turning into a political fault line. Trusted conservative figures, including FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, are reportedly outraged by what they perceive as a blatant cover-up.

Despite persistent claims from the FBI that there was no “Epstein client list” and that Epstein died by suicide, sources say the administration is reluctant to release additional documentation. The concern? Some names on the list may be innocent individuals who simply met Epstein in a professional capacity, while others may be implicated in the alleged trafficking network. Without clear distinctions, publicizing such names could trigger chaos — and lawsuits.

Further muddying the waters are longstanding rumors that Epstein was working as an intelligence asset, potentially protected at the highest levels of government for years. Some insiders believe this status may have shielded him from prosecution for decades and continues to obstruct the truth from coming out.

Amid the uproar, Attorney General Bondi pushed back against speculation that she may step down.

“I’m going to be here for as long as the president wants me here,” she said during a press briefing in Virginia. “And I believe he’s made that crystal clear,” according to the Associated Press.

Still, with mounting public pressure, deepening distrust of federal institutions, and key questions remaining unanswered — including who edited the footage, and why — the Epstein scandal remains an open wound for the American public.