Jeffrey Epstein’s death WAS suicide, jail’s ‘negligence and misconduct’ blamed in DoJ report

Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 death was a suicide with no outside involvement, a Department of Justice report has ruled today after years of rampant conspiracy theories questioning why the notorious, well-connected pedophile was able to take his own life while in custody. 

Epstein killed himself in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He hanged himself using ‘excess’ prison linens which he should never have had. 

At the time, Epstein was charged with recruiting underage girls for his own sexual gratification and entangling them in an international operation where he paid them and, in some cases, held them against their will. 

There were rampant rumors, fueled in part by Epstein’s legal team, that his suicide may have been aided by an outside party to cover up others’ roles in his crimes. 

The DoJ has been investigating his death and whether anyone but him was to blame. 

A 128-page report released today by the Inspector General finds that staff shortages, poor performance by those there and inadequate surveillance cameras contributed to his death – but that there is ‘no evidence’ anyone else was directly involved. 

‘While we determined MCC New York staff engaged in significant misconduct, we did not uncover evidence contradicting the FBI’s determination there was no criminality in connection with how Epstein died,’ Inspector General Michael Horowitz said in a video statement accompanying the report. 

Among failures by prison staff was to assign Epstein a cellmate after a failed suicide attempt on July 23.

In that case, Epstein was found unresponsive with a cloth wrapped around his neck. 

Efrain Reyes was his final cellmate. On August 9, Reyes was moved to the GEO prison in Queens. 

The report does not explain the transfer. Reyes died in December 2020. His lawyers say he was killed by COVID-19.

By then, Epstein had met with his lawyers (August 8) and signed his last will. 

After Reyes was transferred and after signing his will, Epstein was then allowed to make an ‘unrecorded, unmonitored’ phone call from the prison which was a violation of policy, according to the report. 

Epstein claimed to be calling his mother, but the report says he in fact phoned another person with whom he had ‘a personal relationship’. 

The report does not identify that person. 

Epstein used his bedsheets to hang himself in this prison cell. He was discovered unresponsive 

Epstein was found in his cell at 6.30am on August 10. Staff were genuinely shocked, according to the report

The Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan, where Epstein was being held 

Epstein was locked into his cell at 9pm on August 9. 

A search would have revealed that he had ‘excess’ prison linens that were later fashioned into nooses, but there is no note of when his cell was last checked. 

At 6.30am on August 10, he was founded hanging from the top bunk, his body just 1 inch off the floor.  

Horowitz said the blankets would have been seized had his cell been searched, as it was supposed to have been. 

‘The combination of negligence, misconduct and outright job performance failures documented in today’s report all contributed to an environment in which arguably one of the most notorious inmates in the BoP’s custody was left unmonitored and alone in his cell with an excess of prison linens thereby providing him with the opportunity to take his own life,’ he said. 

Horowitz said the findings are ‘troubling not only because the BoP didn’t adequately safeguard an individual in its custody, but also because they led to questions about the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death and effectively deprived Epstein’s numerous victims of the opportunity to seek justice through the criminal justice system.’