Epstein Was Not on Suicide Watch When He Died: Officials
Weeks ago, wealthy financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was reportedly placed on suicide watch “in medical distress” with “apparent bruising on his neck,” according to The Daily Beast.
But Epstein, who was reported dead Saturday in what authorities have suggested appears to be death by suicide, was not on suicide watch when he allegedly hanged himself, officials say.
“Epstein, 66, was in his federal jail cell in downtown Manhattan but was not on suicide watch at the time of his death,” NBC News reported, citing people familiar with the investigation.
This report appears to have been confirmed by a Department of Justice spokesman.
The spokesman, Lee Plourde, told the New York Post that Epstein was not “currently” on suicide watch while being held at the Manhattan Correctional Facility in New York City.
But Plourde would not go into further details.
“I’m not going to discuss his previous medical status,” he told the Post.
One source told the Post that Epstein’s wounds from his prior alleged suicide attempt were “more consistent with being choked out than hanging yourself.”
The FBI is looking into Epstein’s death out of an “abundance of caution” and due to the nature of his case, a senior law enforcement official told NBC.
“I was appalled to learn that Jeffrey Epstein was found dead early this morning from an apparent suicide while in federal custody,” Attorney General William Barr said in a statement.
“Mr. Epstein’s death raises serious questions that must be answered. In addition to the FBI’s investigation, I have consulted with the Inspector General who is opening an investigation into the circumstances of Mr. Epstein’s death.”
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Barr was “livid” to hear the news of Epstein’s death, a source familiar with the case told ABC News.
Epstein was found dead a day after unsealed court documents revealed that one of his alleged victims claimed she was forced to sleep with a variety of powerful men, including at least two Democratic politicians.
The identities of those men were made public as roughly 2,000 documents “related to Virginia Giuffre’s defamation lawsuit against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell” were unsealed in federal court, according to the Post.
“In a deposition, Giuffre, née Roberts, claimed she was trafficked to MIT professor Marvin Minsky, who died in 2016 at age 88, as well as former Maine Sen. George Mitchell, ex-New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and money manager Glenn Dubin,” the Post reported.
Giuffre has for some time claimed that Epstein “trafficked her to powerful people for erotic massages and sex,” as The Daily Beast noted.
Epstein, already a convicted sex offender, was hit last month with multiple charges of sex trafficking and sex trafficking conspiracy.
Before being found dead, he had pleaded not guilty.
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