At least 24 hours before Jeffrey Epstein’s death on Aug. 10, eight people at the Bureau of Prisons had been told that the wealthy financier and sex offender was not to be left alone in his cell at the Manhattan Correctional Center. But he was anyway — and then Epstein killed himself.
Epstein’s accusers and their attorneys will have a chance to share their stories in a Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, before the criminal case against Epstein is closed.
The order to never leave Epstein alone was given to supervisors and managers as well as lower-level staffers, the Washington Post reported Wednesday, citing anonymous sources. Investigators are now looking into whether these people also knew, for sure, that Epstein had been left alone in his cell.
Epstein had been charged with sexually trafficking a minor and conspiring to commit sex trafficking, and was potentially facing decades in prison. The New York City medical examiner’s office has ruled his death a suicide by hanging, but questions still swirl around whether bureaucratic failures contributed to the circumstances that led him to die.
Epstein was placed on suicide watch after he apparently tried to kill himself weeks earlier, but was reportedly taken off shortly before his death. Suicide watch would have guaranteed that he’d have a cellmate — but his cellmate was transferred out. When he died, Epstein was housed alone. – READ MORE