Jeffrey Epstein brother rejects DOJ's video: 'I believe he was killed'

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (FOX 2) - More than a week after the Department of Justice released its files on Jeffrey Epstein and his death, distrust in institutions and law enforcement continues to linger and grow. 

In 2019, federal prosecutors in New York charged Jeffrey Epstein with sex trafficking, but he killed himself in jail while awaiting trial. Maxwell was prosecuted for helping recruit his underage victims, and she was convicted in 2021 and is currently serving a 20-year prison term.

Last week, the DOJ released video from the jail where Epstein was held before his death. But several minutes were cut from the video. The discrepancy was first reported by WIRED, which worked with metadata specialists to analyze the file. The analysis showed that one of the original source clips used to create the final video was 2 minutes and 53 seconds longer than what the DOJ ultimately released.

As the Epstein case continues to fuel distrust in elite institutions and law enforcement, and questions about the integrity of the only known footage from the night of his death are resurfacing, the desire for information about Epstein's life and death is only growing.

His brother says he's never believed the suicide claims.

"I believe he was killed because I believe that, a day after he died, and I heard on CNN that he was found dead from assumed suicide," Mark Esptein said. 

Mark spoke with FOX 2's Taryn Asher via Zoom but under the condition of not revealing his face or his location. He told us that he's in Europe and is in hiding because of threats made against him and his claims.

Mark Epstein: It looked like a homicide

What they're saying:

"The government didn't notify me (of my brother's death) as they claimed they did. I heard it on CNN and I had no reason to doubt that he committed suicide because he was in prison," he said.

But Mark said he had suspicions from day one. When he met with medical examiners in New York in 2019 to identify his brother, they told him it didn't look like a suicide.

"They came out of the autopsy and they both concurred that this looked more like a homicide than a suicide," Mark said.

Jeffrey Epstein's autopsy was performed by New York City's Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Barbara Sampson and a pathologist hired by the Epstein family, Dr. Michael Baden.

"One of the major things was the three broken bones in his neck. Now, Dr. Baden has done about 500 autopsies. He's been doing this for over 50 years,"And I've spoken to other pathologists and they say, you know, on a soft hanging. Which is supposedly what Jeffrey was supposed to have done. You know, you might get a broken bone, maybe two, but no one's ever seen three broken bones in this kind of hanging."

Mark admits it had been a long time since he spoke to his brother – the day before he got arrested – when he called Mark from Paris. He said he had no reason to believe his brother was suicidal.

"I never spoke to Jeffrey again after that while he was in jail," he said. "I know people who did speak to him, and nobody thought he was suicidal. Even the people who spoke to him the day before."

Mark says his brother's death is a cover-up and there should be more details available. 

"If it wasn't a cover-up, then all the information we were trying to get to answer some questions should be readily available, but everything's being hidden," Mark said.

He elaborated, saying that autopsies typically take weeks but Dr. Sampson had results a few days after his brother died. Then when Attorney General Bill Barr said it was a suicide, the case was all but closed.

"If the attorney general claims it is suicide, basically, from what I understand, there's nothing, there is no reason to investigate," he said.

As for the video released last week by the Department of Justice, Mark says that the cell the FBI is claiming was here Jeffrey was held, wasn't his.

"Because that video doesn't show where Jeff was. They're trying to make it sound like it's showing Jeff's cell door. That was not Jeff's cell door. I have photographs of his actual cell door," Mark said. "Now in that video, in the beginning of the video, they're talking about walking Jeffrey into his cell. Number one, you can't tell that that's Jeffrey in that video. I tried to blow it up. You can't know who that person is in the video. And you can just walk somebody into Jeffrey's cell that way."

Mark said he never visited his brother in the jail but reviewed photos from the medical examiner's office.

"These are original photographs of what the place really was. That video is bull shit. I hate it. I don't know a better term," he said.

But Mark won't speculate on who he thinks would have killed, or wanted to kill his brother, saying he doesn't want to lose credibility. 

He believes the cover-up goes very high within the federal government.

"The DOJ is obviously covering this stuff up because we're not getting the answers we want. They're releasing bull shit videos. You know, they're making ridiculous statements like I said, Cash Patel saying, you know a suicide when you see one. I had to laugh at that. How many suicides has he seen?" he said.

Mark has said for years that he believes his brother did not die by suicide but was killed in a politically motivated murder.

"I believe he was taken out to protect somebody from whatever dirt Jeffrey had on them," he said.

Mark added he "would not dismiss" that the person he had information on could have been the president or a former president. 

What happened to Epstein's "client list"?

The federal government said last week that there is not a ‘client list’, despite Attorney General Pam Bondi implying as much during a FOX News interview in February that one was sitting on her desk. 

Mark said he hadn't seen his brother for a few years before his death but knows that he wasn't keeping tabs on people.

"I wasn't involved with his his activities. Jeffrey and I hadn't seen each other for seven years before he died. We were always in communication on the phone and email. So I wasn't privy to what we was with every minute of the day. So I don't know what's in both these files. They talk about a list. I have no idea what kind of list they're looking for, talking about. You know, I could say one thing, knowing Jeffrey, I don't think he was blackmailing people. He had plenty of money. He didn't need to blackmail people. That wasn't who he was, as far as I know," he said.

Mark said his brother was guilty of being with girls who were "too young" – which is what his brother told him.

What's next:

With the case files released and six years after Jeffrey's death, Mark wants the case re-opened.

"A lot of his stuff is gone. I was told they didn't do like fingerprint stuff in his cell. I don't think they did DNA analysis on the ligature that was around his neck to see who might else have touched that. You know, and we don't know where that is. I mean, who has that?" he said. 

While the DOJ is unlikely to restart the investigation, Mark said private investigators are looking it.

"My life would have been a lot easier if this was clearly a suicide," he said.

Mark is hoping that the DOJ will release the rest of the details and information they have.

"As far as I'm concerned, they should release everything. I have no reason for them not to release anything," Mark said. "I think they're certainly holding things back."

Crime and Public Safety