Before disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein killed himself, he was allowed to make an unmonitored call in violation of prison policy, his cell was strewn with an excessive amount of bedding material and almost none of the cameras meant to monitor him were working.
(Bloomberg) — Before disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein killed himself, he was allowed to make an unmonitored call in violation of prison policy, his cell was strewn with an excessive amount of bedding material and almost none of the cameras meant to monitor him were working.
Those are among the failures and misconduct by New York prison staff that contributed to an environment in which Epstein “was provided with the opportunity to take his own life,” according to a report issued by the Justice Department’s inspector general Tuesday.
“A search of Epstein’s cell following his death revealed Epstein had excess prison blankets, linens, and clothing in his cell, and that some had been ripped to create nooses,” according to the report.
Investigators couldn’t determine why and when the linen was put in his cell, or the last time Epstein’s room was searched before he was found dead. As for the phone call, Epstein said he was going to call his mother, who was deceased.
Epstein was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in August 2019, about a month after he was arrested on federal charges. Though the medical examiner ruled his death a suicide, the circumstances have long fueled conspiracy theories suggesting that he was murdered. The report, which was issued by the DOJ’s Inspector General Michael Horowitz, had been eagerly awaited by Epstein’s victims.
Tuesday’s report, however, didn’t find any evidence to contradict the FBI’s determination that he died by suicide.
“The combination of negligence, misconduct and outright job performance failures documented in the report all contributed to an environment in which arguably one of the most notorious inmates in BOP’s custody was provided with the opportunity to take his own life,” the report said, referring to lapses by Federal Bureau of Prisons personnel.
Epstein’s death focused attention on the Metropolitan Correction Center, the Lower Manhattan federal facility where he was held. Long dogged by allegations of corruption among the guards and inhumane conditions for inmates, the prison was temporarily closed” in October 2021 with no firm plans for its reopening.
Investigators also found multiple problems with the use of cameras at the prison, including some that didn’t work and others that didn’t record.
“This investigation and review revealed longstanding deficiencies” with the security camera system at New York’s Metropolitan Correction Center, the report said. The deficiencies resulted in nearly all of the cameras in and around the unit where Epstein was being housed to not record video starting in late July 2019 and continuing through the date of Epstein’s death on August 10, 2019, the report added.
Read more: Jail Where Jeffrey Epstein Hanged Himself Reckons With Future
Federal prosecutors previously charged two guards with falsifying records to hide their failure to adequately monitor Epstein. They were supposed to check on him every 30 minutes but didn’t for eight hours and may have been asleep during part of that time, prosecutors said. The guards eventually reached a deal to avoid jail time.
The case brought against Epstein by Manhattan federal prosecutors in 2019 would have seen him go to prison for decades if he’d been convicted. It came more than a decade after he reached a 2006 sweetheart deal with Florida federal prosecutors who allowed him to plead guilty to state prostitution offenses and spend only 12 months in a minimum-security prison.
“Victims have been promised answers but after years of waiting for those answers, they have yet to receive them,” Gloria Allred, a lawyer for some of Epstein’s victims, wrote to the inspector general in March. “The victims of Mr. Epstein deserve to be told the truth about how and why the justice system failed them again.”
Despite the Florida conviction, Epstein continued to surround himself with wealthy and powerful figures from Wall Street and the world stage, all while flying scores of young women between his properties in New York, Florida and the US Virgin Islands. Conspiracy theorists claim Epstein may have been murdered to prevent him from identifying other big names who participated in his crimes.
A year after Epstein’s death, prosecutors charged his former girlfriend, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell with sex-trafficking and recruiting girls for him. Her lawyers claimed at trial that she being prosecuted solely because Epstein was dead. Maxwell was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
(Updates with details from DoJ IG report starting in the sixth paragraph)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.