Two weeks before ending his life, Jeffrey Epstein sat in the corner of his Manhattan jail cell with his hands over his ears, desperate to muffle the sound of a toilet that wouldn't stop running. Epstein was agitated and unable to sleep, jail officials observed in records newly obtained by the AP. He called himself a "coward" and complained he was struggling to adapt to life behind bars following his July 2019 arrest on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. The disgraced financier was under psychological observation at the time for a suicide attempt just days earlier that left his neck bruised and scraped. Yet, even after a 31-hour stint on suicide watch, Epstein insisted he wasn't suicidal, telling a jail psychologist he had a "wonderful life" and "would be crazy" to end it.
On Aug. 10, 2019, Epstein was dead. Nearly four years later, the AP has obtained more than 4,000 pages of documents related to Epstein's death from the federal Bureau of Prisons under the Freedom of Information Act. They include a detailed psychological reconstruction of the events leading to Epstein's suicide, as well as his health history, internal agency reports, emails, memos, and other records. Taken together, the documents provide the most complete accounting to date of Epstein's detention and death, and its chaotic aftermath. They help to dispel the many conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein's suicide, underscoring how fundamental failings at the Bureau of Prisons—including severe staffing shortages and employees cutting corners—contributed to Epstein's death.
They shed new light on the federal prison agency's muddled response after Epstein was found unresponsive in his cell at the now-shuttered Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City. In one email, a prosecutor involved in Epstein's criminal case complained about a lack of information from the Bureau of Prisons in the critical hours after his death, writing that it was "frankly unbelievable" that the agency was issuing public press releases "before telling us basic information so that we can relay it to his attorneys who can relay it to his family." The documents also provide a fresh window into Epstein's behavior during his 36 days in jail, including his previously unreported attempt to connect with sexual abuser Larry Nassar. A letter Epstein wrote Nassar was found returned to sender in the jail's mail room weeks after Epstein's death.
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Epstein's outlook worsened when a judge denied him bail on July 18, 2019—raising the prospect that he'd remain locked up until trial and, possibly longer. If convicted, he faced up to 45 years in prison. Four days later, Epstein was found on the floor of his cell with a strip of bedsheet around his neck. He survived, was placed on suicide watch and, later, psychiatric observation. Jail officers noted in logs that they observed him "sitting at the edge of the bed, lost in thought." The night before Epstein’s death, he excused himself from a meeting with his lawyers to make a telephone call to his family. According to a memo from a unit manager, Epstein told a jail employee that he was calling his mother, who'd been dead for 15 years at that point. Read much more from the AP here. (More Jeffrey Epstein stories.)
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