Jeffrey Epstein was given extra linens in a Manhattan jail cell and authorities negligently failed to assign him a cellmate or take other precautions leading up to his death in 2019, according to a newly unveiled federal investigation.
Epstein, already a convicted sex offender in Florida, died at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York in August of that year while awaiting federal trial for sex trafficking.
The report found that there was both negligence and misconduct – which created an environment that allowed him to kill himself and deprive "his numerous victims, many of whom were underage girls at the time of the alleged crimes, of their ability to seek justice through the criminal justice process."
The Justice Department's Inspector General released a highly anticipated report on its investigation into the matter Tuesday.
FILE - This March 28, 2017, file photo, provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry, shows Jeffrey Epstein. (AP, File)
The city's medical examiner ruled his death a suicide, but there have been persistent questions for years surrounding the circumstances before and after his death, and even his ex-girlfriend and accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, has publicly stated that she thinks Epstein was killed.
Roughly a month before his death, the disgraced financier's former cellmate told guards that he'd tried to hang himself after they found him with an orange cloth wrapped around his neck.
"Epstein first told MCC New York staff he thought his cellmate had tried to kill him, but later said he did not know what occurred and did not want to talk about how he had sustained his injuries," according to the OIG report.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attend an event at Cipriani Wall Street on March 15, 2005 in New York City. Epstein was found dead in a jail cell on Aug. 10, 2019, while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence. (Photo by Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
That cellmate was transferred out on Aug. 9, 2019. Early the next morning, as staff was handing out breakfast, they found Epstein dead in the cell.
"I believe that he was murdered," Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year federal sentence herself, told the Guardian in a January prison interview. "I was shocked."
Jeffrey Epstein appears in court in West Palm Beach, Florida, on July 30, 2008. (Uma Sanghvi/Palm Beach Post via AP, File)
Then-Attorney General Bill Barr said shortly after Epstein died that his "death raises serious questions that must be answered" and subsequently announced the Inspector General’s investigation.
Epstein also had connections to powerful figures, including former Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton and the British royal family, further fueling the idea that foul play was involved.
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