The Department of Justice Inspector General released new details regarding the alleged suicide of Jeffrey Epstein in a watchdog report published on Tuesday.
According to the report, the Inspector General of the Justice Department concluded that Epstein’s death was indeed a “suicide”.
The watchdog report placed responsibility for Epstein’s suicide squarely on the shoulders of the jail guard, citing their negligence and misconduct as contributing factors.
“The Medical Examiner who performed the autopsy detailed for the OIG [Office of Inspector General] why Epstein’s injuries were more consistent with, and indicative of, a suicide by hanging rather than a homicide by strangulation,” the report said. “The Medical Examiner also told the OIG that the ligature furrow was too broad to have been caused by the electrical cord of the medical device in Epstein’s cell and that blood toxicology tests revealed no medications or illegal substances were in Epstein’s system. The Medical Examiner also noted the absence of debris under Epstein’s fingernails, marks on his hands, contusions to his knuckles, or bruises on his body that would have indicated Epstein had been a struggle, which would be expected if Epstein’s death had been a homicide by strangulation.”
ABC News reported:
A new Justice Department Inspector General report details the failures that occurred beginning one month before Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide while in custody of the Bureau of Prisons. The report also makes clear that foul play was not possible.
When officers discovered Epstein unresponsive in his cell on Aug. 10, 2019, Officer Michael Thomas, who was charged criminally in the case, said, “Breathe, Epstein, Breathe,” according to the new report issued Tuesday.
When Thomas saw Epstein dangling from the bed, he said, “We’re going to be in a lot of trouble,” according to the report.
On Aug. 10, the Inspector General said Epstein was in his cell at 8 p.m. Officials said he made an unrecorded call on a landline that was not monitored by prison communications. Epstein told the officers he was calling his mother, according to the report, but she had died before that date. The report said staffers should have been monitoring this call made by Epstein.
After 10:40 p.m., Epstein was not checked on nor was he monitored until officers discovered him hanging from his cell, according to the report.
Epstein first attempted suicide in custody on July 23, 2019, and the Inspector General report said Bureau of Prisons employees should have been put on alert then.
On July 30, the Inspector General said an email was sent to 70 staffers of the prison physiological unit instructing that Epstein was to be housed with a cellmate. But the Inspector General said that warning went unheeded by Bureau of Prisons staff so that when his cellmate was moved on Aug. 8, another inmate was not placed there.
Inspector General Michael Horowitz stated on Tuesday that the responsibility for not assigning Epstein a cellmate after his previous one departed and for not resolving technical issues with the Metropolitan Correctional Center’s surveillance system rested with the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Horowitz further noted that Epstein was provided with an excessive number of bed sheets, which were ultimately used in his alleged hanging and subsequent death.
Following Epstein’s death in August 2019, Democrats, affluent liberal philanthropists, and universities have attempted to distance themselves from him, despite having accepted his financial donations for an extended period. This shift in attitude comes in the wake of Epstein’s pending charges related to human trafficking and solicitation of minors for sexual activities.
“The BOP’s failures are troubling not only because the BOP did not 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,” Michael Horowitz, the inspector general, said in a statement accompanying the report’s release.
Fox News reported on the “significant” failures on the part of the BOP personnel:
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.
Jeffrey Epstein, a well-known pedophile associated with the rich and powerful, was found dead in his prison cell in Manhattan in August 2019. This came after an alleged suicide attempt in July, a week prior.
Following an examination, the medical examiner determined his cause of death to be suicide by hanging.
Reportedly, Epstein, who stood at 6 feet tall, fastened a bedsheet to the bunk bed and proceeded to wrap it around his neck.
Epstein’s autopsy revealed a broken hyoid bone in his neck, a condition commonly associated with strangulation in cases of homicide rather than suicide.
Photographs obtained from the autopsy show what appears to be evidence of a wire being used to strangle Epstein (Screenshot below).
In January 2020, prosecutors informed a judge that the previously “missing” surveillance footage from outside Jeffrey Epstein’s prison cell, pertaining to his suicide attempt in July, had been located.
However, prosecutors later informed the judge that the surveillance video had been inadvertently destroyed due to a “record-keeping error.” Adding to the unsettling situation, it was revealed that the backup system for video surveillance was not working due to “technical errors”.
