U.S. Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA) responded to a CBS News report regarding newly accessed video potentially showing a mystery figure on the stairs at the New York jail where sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was held. The video was reportedly recorded on the night of Epstein’s death, which was officially ruled a suicide. According to CBS, the “newly released video logs appear to contradict official accounts,” an assertion reiterated by Lieu.
[Note: The new video logs were released by the U.S. Department of Justice and show “an orange-colored shape moving up a staircase toward the isolated, locked tier where Epstein’s cell was located” on August 9, 2019, the night Epstein died. The alleged contradiction references the fact that authorities, including then-U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, indicated at the time that no one entered Epstein’s housing tier on the night of his death.]
Lieu wrote to the Republicans on the House Committee on the Judiciary, including chair Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), on X: “Dear @JudiciaryGOP: You need to call Bill Barr to testify. Newly released video logs contradict official accounts of the night Epstein was found dead. And the noose at the scene was not what killed Epstein. WAIT WTF? That likely means some individual PLACED A NOOSE at the scene.”
Bill Barr is a liar and should be called to testify. https://t.co/kKjrR0zmM8
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) February 6, 2026
MAGA-aligned former U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a lawyer and former member on the House Judiciary Committee who doesn’t share much common political ground with Lieu, responded to Lieu’s post, writing: “Bill Barr is a liar and should be called to testify.”
Note: Days after Trump was re-elected in November 2024, Rep. Jordan sided with Gaetz — who was then tapped to serve as President Trump’s next Attorney General — and said the House Ethics Committee report on Gaetz’s conduct “shouldn’t go public.” A federal investigation related to Gaetz, which began in April 2021, began under Attorney General Bill Barr during Trump’s first term.