Discrepancies Emerge Over 'Orange Figure' in Newly Released Jeffrey Epstein Death Records

Recently declassified documents from the U.S. Department of Justice have brought renewed attention to a mysterious "orange-colored figure" captured on surveillance footage near Jeffrey Epstein’s cell on the night he died in August 2019. This specific sighting, recorded at approximately 10:39 p.m. on August 9, 2019, at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in New York, was made public in a massive document dump in late January 2026. These revelations are part of a broader disclosure mandated by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, shedding new light on the final hours of the high-profile inmate.

According to the official observation logs, the orange figure appeared to be an inmate being escorted up the stairs of the L-tier, the section of the Special Housing Unit (SHU) where Epstein was being held. The release of this information was facilitated by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was signed into law by President Trump on November 19, 2025. This legislation required the Department of Justice (DOJ) to declassify and publish a staggering amount of investigative material, including over 3 million pages of documents, 2,000 videos, and 180,000 images, with the final installment delivered on January 30, 2026.

Initial assessments of the footage by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) resulted in conflicting conclusions regarding the identity of the figure. An internal FBI memorandum originally characterized the grainy image as "possibly an inmate," a detail that was notably absent from the OIG’s final 2023 investigative report. In contrast, the OIG suggested that the object in motion was actually a correctional officer carrying "prison linens or bedding up the stairs," rather than a person in a prison uniform.

The OIG report further detailed a series of systemic failures within the SHU, noting that staff failed to conduct required 30-minute wellness checks after 10:40 p.m. on August 9. Additionally, no formal prisoner counts were performed after 4:00 p.m. that day, and subsequent logs and patrol records were found to have been falsified by staff. These findings directly contradict earlier public assurances from then-Attorney General William Barr, who had claimed that his personal review of the surveillance tapes confirmed that no one had entered the tier where Epstein was housed on the night of his death.

Independent analysis of the video by CBS News highlighted significant limitations in the surveillance coverage, noting that the camera angle did not provide a clear view of the entrance to Epstein’s specific cell block. Furthermore, the staircase leading to the area was almost entirely outside the camera's field of vision. Despite these visual gaps, forensic video experts who examined the footage argued that the movement patterns were more consistent with an individual wearing a standard orange prison uniform. Nevertheless, the June 2023 joint report by the OIG and FBI maintained that Epstein’s death was a suicide, finding no evidence of criminal activity despite the numerous operational lapses at MCC New York.

The timeline remains a focal point of the investigation, with the orange figure being recorded at 10:39 p.m., while Epstein’s body was not discovered until approximately 6:30 a.m. on August 10, 2019. The discovery was made by correctional officers Tova Noel and Michael Thomas as they were making their rounds to deliver breakfast to the inmates. These newly released details continue to fuel public debate over the circumstances surrounding the death of the financier, highlighting the stark differences between official narratives and the recorded evidence.