Jeffrey Epstein was given extra linens in a Manhattan jail cell, and authorities negligently failed to assign him a cellmate or take other precautions leading up to his death in 2019, according to a newly unveiled federal investigation.
Epstein, already a convicted sex offender in Florida, died at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York in August 2019 while awaiting federal trial for sex trafficking. While finding flaws with the Bureau of Prisons and its staff members, the report also uncovered no evidence to contradict the designation of Epstein's death as a suicide.
The 128-page report found that there was both negligence and misconduct, which created an environment that allowed him to kill himself and deprive "his numerous victims, many of whom were underage girls at the time of the alleged crimes, of their ability to seek justice through the criminal justice process."
The Justice Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a highly anticipated report on its investigation into the matter Tuesday.
The city's medical examiner ruled his death a suicide, but there have been persistent questions for years surrounding the circumstances before and after his death, and even his ex-girlfriend and accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, has publicly stated that she thinks Epstein was killed.
Roughly a month before his death in the jail's Special Housing Unit for high-profile prisoners, the disgraced financier's former cellmate told guards that Epstein had tried to hang himself after they found him with an orange cloth wrapped around his neck.
"Epstein first told MCC New York staff he thought his cellmate had tried to kill him, but later said he did not know what occurred and did not want to talk about how he had sustained his injuries," according to the Office of Inspector General report.
He spent a day on suicide watch and was cleared, according to authorities.
Now, investigations from both the FBI and the inspector general have not found evidence to support the homicide speculation.
"While the OIG determined MCC New York staff engaged in significant misconduct, we did not uncover evidence contradicting the FBI’s determination regarding the absence of criminality in connection with how Epstein died," the OIG report read. "We did not find, for example, evidence that anyone was present in the SHU area where Epstein was housed during the relevant timeframe other than the inmates who were locked in their assigned cells."
The OIG report did find "significant job performance and management failures on the part of BOP personnel and widespread disregard of BOP policies that are designed to ensure that inmates are safe, secure, and in good health."
Other shortcomings included a faulty surveillance camera system in the wing, which had first malfunctioned on June 29. Against BOP policy, he was allowed to place an unmonitored phone call around 7 p.m. on Aug. 9, according to the report – contacting another woman after claiming he intended to speak with his mother.
That night, guards failed to complete multiple inmate head counts or perform regular rounds until 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 10, according to the OIG. Then they found Epstein hanging from his bunk in his cell.
His cellmate had been transferred out of MCC custody the evening prior, and the OIG report states that he was alone and unmonitored in his cell overnight.
"I believe that he was murdered," Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year federal sentence herself, told the Guardian in a January prison interview. "I was shocked."
Then-Attorney General Bill Barr said shortly after Epstein died that his "death raises serious questions that must be answered" and subsequently announced the Inspector General’s investigation.
Epstein also had connections to powerful figures, including former Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton and the British royal family, further fueling the idea that foul play was involved.
This is a breaking news story.
