By Holmes Lybrand | CNN
The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General on Tuesday issued a scathing rebuke of the Bureau of Prisons detailing the multiple failures that led to the death of high-profile financier Jeffrey Epstein following his arrest in 2019 but found no evidence to contradict the “absence of criminality” in his death.
According to the report, the failures that allowed Epstein time to die by suicide in his cell included multiple prison employees failing to conduct rounds and cell searches to check on Epstein, his access to extra bed linens – which he used to hang himself – and failure to assign Epstein a fellow inmate after he was placed on suicide watch.
The OIG, however, did not find evidence “that contradicted the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) determination regarding the absence of criminality in connection with how Epstein died,” according to the report.
“All (prison) staff members who were interviewed by the OIG said they did not know of any information suggesting that Epstein’s cause of death was something other than suicide,” the report states. “Likewise, none of the interviewed inmates provided any credible information that Epstein’s cause of death was something other than suicide.”
Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking minors. Then, in August, only 35 days after his arrest, Epstein died by suicide by hanging in his jail cell at New York City’s Metropolitan Correctional Center where he was being held, according to New York City’s medical examiner.
The politically and socially well-connected financier’s death immediately spurned conspiracy theories and significant questioning and intrigue over the circumstances.
The report indicated the Bureau of Prisons’ failings were troubling not only because they did not safeguard Epstein but also because they “led to numerous questions about the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death” and denied…
Read the full article here