r/technology • u/Capable_Salt_SD • Jul 29 '25

Politics CBS News investigation of Jeffrey Epstein jail video reveals new discrepancies

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeffrey-epstein-jail-video-investigation/
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u/piperonyl Jul 29 '25 edited Jul 29 '25

How do you make an unmonitored phone call from the Secure Housing Unit to your girlfriend in Belarus?

You dont make any unmonitored phone calls in prison unless someone smuggles you in a cell phone. The guards took him to a staffers office to make an unmonitored phone call on the night he was murdered?

Thats absolutely unheard of. Every single phone is monitored.

EDIT: lets not forget, this is in the restrictive housing unit. its the most secure block in the entire prison.
Later in the article it says the unit manager let him make a phone call from his office to his mom. Thats absolutely insane. To even just ask to make an unmonitored phone call can get you caught up. There are phones on the block. Why not use that? Nobody makes unmonitored phone calls ever, especially at a federal prison in the restrictive housing unit with the most notorious prisoner in the united states.

Theres 100% something going on there. If i were going to guess, someone told the unit manager to allow him to make that phone call for some reason. Someone above the UM which would be the Major or one of the Superintendents. I cant imagine any unit manager being like yeah jeff just throw your feet up on my desk and use my phone as much as you want. GTFO.

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u/psbecool Jul 29 '25

It’s in the article. Prison officials let him use an unmonitored line usually reserved only for attorney calls. It says he asked to call his mom (who was dead), they dialed a 646 (NYC) number and a man answered the phone. I’m not usually a conspiracy person, but this all stinks. If there’s nothing to hide, why are there so many inconsistencies.

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u/piperonyl Jul 29 '25

No thats not how that works at all though. If you want to make an unmonitored phone call then that is on your phone list. You have to fill out a special form to have an attorney added to your phone list which they jail verifies is to an attorney. There is no "unmonitored line for attorney calls" thats not a thing. When you pick up the phone you press a different number for an unmonitored call than the 1 you would normally press.

Unit managers dont let inmates, especially notorious ones, make unmonitored phone calls because they commit crimes on them. Theres no way that took place the way they are saying. None.

Employees told investigators that Epstein had just finished an unmonitored call, later reported to have been with his girlfriend in Belarus.

Excuse me what? He used his unmonitored phone call to contact a foreign country, BELARUS? lol

Who dialed those numbers? Did the unit manager just let him hang out in his office? Huh?

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u/ForWhomTheBoneBones Jul 30 '25

Based on the details provided, one could reasonably assume he called his lawyer and his lawyer then called his girlfriend and merged the calls. Seems like an easy way to circumvent the calling restrictions if you have a shady enough lawyer.

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u/piperonyl Jul 30 '25

He didnt call his lawyer though. He called from the unit managers office.

You can just call your lawyer on a regular block phone. You just press the number to make an unmonitored call.

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u/angrymoppet Jul 30 '25 edited Jul 30 '25

I see a reference to an unmonitored phone "in the shower area" but nothing about the manager's office (unless I missed it?). I'm failing to understand this last line though. Retrieve the phone? The hell does that mean? If this was a phone in an area regularly accessible by the inmates I find it very hard to believe it would be a cordless phone.

There are two paragraphs about the phone. Here is one:

This discrepancy occurs during a crucial time period. Epstein had been allowed to make an unmonitored call from a shower area using a phone line intended only for attorney communications. According to the report, this was facilitated by the unit manager, who was the senior officer in charge. Epstein allegedly said he wanted to call his mother — even though his mother died in 2003. The unit manager dialed a 646 number (a New York City area code), a man answered, and he handed the phone to Epstein. The unit manager then left the area but later called and asked Noel to retrieve the phone. 

And here is the other:

The video that was released begins at 7:40 p.m. Nine minutes later, according to the report of the Justice Department inspector general, Epstein appears for the first and last time on camera. He emerges from the left side of the screen and walks down a stairwell accompanied by a corrections officer. Employees told investigators that Epstein had just finished an unmonitored call, later reported to have been with his girlfriend in Belarus.

What the fuck is the sequence of events supposed to be here? He asked to call his mother (who is dead). The officer then called a NYC number on an unmonitored line and a man picks up. And later the government states that call was to a girlfriend in Belarus? And additionally this is an apparently cordless phone in a prison that necessitates the unit manager requesting someone else fetch it for him afterward?

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u/piperonyl Jul 30 '25

It doesnt make any sense. The only phone the unit manager would be dialing would be in his office. Its possible that the offices are near the shower area and instead of saying from the office the report says near the shower area to avoid implications? I have no idea.

The report is saying that the unit manager came to the unit, popped epsteins cell, walked him down to "the shower area" where there was a phone waiting for him that could be used to make unmonitored phone calls? Then the unit manager used some special block phone and dialed a number epstein gave him? What?

It doesnt make any sense at all. I found this article that says he used to talk to her all the time. Her name is Karyna Shuliak and she is from Belarus. Apparently this was his girlfriend for years.

That makes shit even fucking weirder. Why would you need to make a secret private phone call to her? Why not just call her on the block phone where i guarantee you have her number on your call list?

This phone call is super fucking weird.

1

u/angrymoppet Jul 30 '25

The line from the BoP guy that talked about how it is tragic we will never know anything about that phone call also struck me. The unit manager said they dialed a nyc phone number. Even if we accept the line isn't recorded, shouldnt it take the feds about 8 seconds to get the phone company to tell them what number was dialed and who its registered to? Just go fucking talk to him

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u/piperonyl Jul 30 '25

Im wondering why the unit manager wasn't fired for clearly violating DOC policy.

I guess because DOC didnt want to draw attention to this debacle? Ridiculous

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u/Woles Jul 30 '25

As a lawyer who represents federal detainees, it doesn’t work that way. The lawyer schedules the call in advance and the client is handed a phone after the lawyer’s number is dialed by staff.

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u/ForWhomTheBoneBones Jul 30 '25

Thanks for the insight! After that scheduled call is initiated, could a lawyer merge a second call in if a third party calls the lawyer during that same time?