The Department of Justice has some explaining to do after a forensic examination of the video released to show that the accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein died by his own hand shows clear evidence of being "manipulated" in some manner.
That is according to a report from Wired, which while not making any judgment whether the way the video was put together was done maliciously, suggested the DOJ and Attorney General Pam Bondi needs to come clean about how the video was pulled and created.
Late Friday, Wired reported that metadata shows manipulation at the moment that has created concerns where it appears there is a gap.
Wired's Dhruv Mehrotra wrote that the video appears to have come from two sources and, "Metadata embedded in the video and analyzed by WIRED and independent video forensics experts shows that rather than being a direct export from the prison’s surveillance system, the footage was modified, likely using the professional editing tool Adobe Premiere Pro."
Questions about the video and the DOJ's surprising assertion that there was no evidence of an Epstein client list has created a firestorm for the DOJ and the White House that has even thrown Donald Trump off his game after he snapped at reporters on Tuesday during a telling exchange.
The dispute of the video has also driven a wedge between Bondi and high-ranking DOJ official Dan Bongino who reportedly stormed out after a meeting, according to Axios.
Wired's Mehrotra urged caution in jumping to conclusions, writing, "The video may have simply been processed for public release using available software, with no modifications beyond stitching together two clips. But the absence of a clear explanation for the processing of the file using professional editing software complicates the Justice Department’s narrative. In a case already clouded by suspicion, the ambiguity surrounding how the file was processed is likely to provide fresh fodder for conspiracy theories."
The Wired report adds, "Working with two independent video forensics experts, WIRED examined the 21-gigabyte files released by the DOJ. Using a metadata tool, reporters analyzed both Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF) and Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) data to identify signs of postprocessing."
You can read more details about the video examination here (subscription required).
