DOJ watchdog cites prison lapses leading up to Epstein’s death, but no sign of foul play

Prison officials and guards failed to properly oversee Jeffrey Epstein when he was in federal custody, and tried to falsify records to cover their tracks, but the watchdog for the U.S. Department of Justice found no evidence to suggest that Epstein’s death was anything other than a suicide by hanging, as the New York City medical examiner originally ruled.

The cause of Epstein’s death has been hotly debated since the financier was found dead in his New York prison cell on Aug. 10, 2019. A noted forensic psychologist hired by Epstein’s estate to investigate the death has long doubted that Epstein’s death was a suicide. After reviewing the inspector general report, he said he is more inclined to believe that Epstein’s death was self-inflicted, but that important questions remain unanswered.

Epstein was found around 6:30 am hanging in a near-seated position an inch to an inch-and-a-half above the floor, dangling from an orange string made from a sheet or shirt that was tied to the top portion of the bunk bed in his room.

Guards hadn’t conducted their searches in the area from about 10:40 p.m. the previous night, leaving Epstein alone and unmonitored for nearly eight hours before he was found hanging in his prison cell. They would later falsify records to suggest they had conducted the required searches during that time period.

The report documented a number of lapses leading up to Epstein’s death. Prison officials were told numerous times that Epstein’s roommate would be transferred the day before the death, but didn’t assign him another cellmate. Epstein had previously attempted suicide on July 23 and while he was not on suicide watch at the time of his death, prison officials had ordered that Epstein be housed with another cellmate for his safety.

Nearly all of the security cameras in the area near Epstein’s cell hadn’t been recording properly for days leading up to his death. Video from one of the only cameras working properly suggested that no one had entered the surrounding area, though it didn’t capture video of the door to Epstein’s cell. Other inmates nearby and two guards also told investigators they hadn’t seen anyone enter Epstein’s cell the night leading up to his death.

Epstein also made an unrecorded phone call that wasn’t monitored after a meeting with his lawyers on Aug. 9. Epstein said he was calling his mother, who had been dead for years, but actually called someone with whom he he allegedly had a personal relationship. That person was not identified in the report.

When Epstein was found in his room, there was excess bedding material and guards found several nooses fashioned out of the cloth. One prison employee said Epstein had successfully gotten numerous things at the prison he wasn’t supposed to have, including pens, by intimidating guards with the threat of reporting their names to his lawyer.

Epstein’s death came a little more than a month after he had been arrested on multiple sex charges brought in the Southern District of New York. His arrest came after Miami Herald reporting on a deal Epstein had struck a decade earlier that had allowed him to avoid harsh penalty for sexually abusing dozens of girls at his mansion in Palm Beach.

The day before Epstein was found dead, filings from a civil lawsuit between one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, and Epstein’s accomplice and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell were made public, revealing more details about Epstein’s abuse of girls and the alleged participation of several of Epstein and Maxwell’s high-profile friends.

Maxwell was found guilty in December 2021 of sexual trafficking of a minor and several related charges and is serving a 20-year prison sentence in a federal prison in Tallahassee. Maxwell was denied bail ahead of her trial and complained bitterly about her conditions in federal custody, including regular wellness checks that made it difficult for her to sleep at night.

On the day before Epstein was found dead, he had changed his will with his lawyers, though prison officials would only learn of this after Epstein’s death, the investigation found.

The report will likely lessen speculation that Epstein was murdered, though it still leaves numerous questions about his death and the actions taken in the immediate aftermath.

Michael Baden, one of the world’s leading forensic pathologists who hired by Epstein’s estate to investigate the death, said he still doesn’t understand why Epstein’s body was moved from the cell, especially since there is no indication that he was alive when he was found.

One of Epstein’s neighboring inmates told investigators that Epstein “looked dead” when one prison guard tried to pick him up and that officers had trouble loading Epstein onto a stretcher because Epstein was “basically dead weight,” according to the report.

Baden said that moving the body made it impossible to determine when Epstein died.

“If someone examined the body there, they’d know that right away,” he said.

While Baden said that physical evidence from the autopsy — notably multiple fractures to Epstein neck — pointed to homicide rather than suicide as the cause of Epstein’s death, the report’s conclusion that no one entered the area would suggest otherwise.

“If nobody had access to that cell, then he would have to have done it by himself,” Baden said.