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What investigators say really happened during Jeffrey Epstein's final days in a Manhattan jail

Jun 27, 2023, 22:37 IST
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Jeffrey Epstein was arrested Saturday evening on charges of sex trafficking of minors.Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty Images
  • Department of Justice investigators on Tuesday released a scathing report on Jeffrey Epstein's death.
  • The report includes details of his final days before his death, which was ruled a suicide.
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Department of Justice investigators on Tuesday released a blistering 121-page long report detailing Jeffrey Epstein's death in a Manhattan jail — and how jail officials failed to prevent his suicide.

Epstein — the billionaire financier and convicted sex offender who was facing sex trafficking charges — died by suicide on August 10, 2019, Metropolitan Correctional Center as he was awaiting trial.

The DOJ Inspector General's report includes new details on his final days, and what happened in the moments just before and after Epstein died:

August 8, 2019

Investigators said Epstein is seen by the Psychology Department at the jail.

During that meeting, Epstein denies any "suicidal ideation, intention, or plan," the report said. On the same day, Epstein meets with his lawyers and secretly changes the details of his will during that meeting, according to the report. Jail officials didn't know that Epstein made those changes, investigators said.

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Later that day, jail officials are notified that Epstein's cellmate is going to be transferred to a new jail on August 9, the report said.

On the same day, staff at the jail realize that there were "disk failures" in their DVR 2 recording system days earlier on July 29. The report said that the failures meant that "approximately one-half of the institution's security cameras not recording, although the cameras continued to broadcast a live video feed."

But the staff at the Manhattan jail don't do the work to fix the recording system, the report said.

August 9, 2019

8:30 a.m. Epstein's cellmate is transferred out of his cell at the jail.

According to the report, two workers at MCC SHU claimed they told supervisory staff that Epstein's cellmate was leaving and that he would need a new cellmate.

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But other witnesses couldn't verify if that was true, the report said, and Epstein is never assigned a new cellmate — which violated jail policy.

8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. Epstein has another meeting with his attorneys.

Before 1:00 p.m. Epstein's lawyers asks the jail if he could either be moved to a different unit or if he could not have a new cellmate.

On the same day, staffers at MCC New York get the replacement hard drives they'd need to fix the security camera recording system. But, according to the report, the staffers don't do the necessary repairs to get the system up and running again.

Later that day, a federal court unseals thousands of documents relating to Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's longtime partner and co-conspirator.

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According to the report, the files include information on Epstein and the criminal charges against him. The report said there is "extensive media coverage of the information in the unsealed documents."

4:00 p.m. Jail staffers don't conduct the scheduled inmate count.

6:45 p.m. Epstein leaves the conference room meeting with his lawyers.

7:00 p.m. Epstein makes an unmonitored phone call to a number with a New York City area code, saying he's going to speak to his mom, the report said. His mother had been dead for years.

This unmonitored call is against the Bureau of Prisons policy, the report said, but Epstein was given special permission.

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Federal investigators said that "in actuality, Epstein speaks with someone with whom he allegedly has a personal relationship." Epstein calls his girlfriend Karyna Shuliak, according to media reports.

Following the call, Epstein goes back to his cell, without a cellmate.

10:00 p.m. Jail staffers skip the scheduled inmate count again. They also don't make the required rounds every 30 minutes.

August 10, 2019

12:00 a.m. Jail staffers miss the scheduled inmate count for a third time.

3:00 a.m. Again, the jail staff don't do an inmate count.

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5:00 a.m. For a fifth time in 24 hours, staff don't count the inmates in the jail. They also don't do required rounds scheduled for every 30 minutes from 12:00 a.m. to 6:30 a.m.

6:30 a.m. Jail staff begin to make rounds to deliver breakfast to the inmates. Typically, staffers would give jail inmates breakfast through the slots in the locked cell doors.

But when the staff deliver Epstein's breakfast, they "unlock the door to the tier in which Epstein's cell was located and then knock on the door to Epstein's cell," the report said.

Epstein doesn't respond to the staffers' knock. The staffers then unlock his cell door and find Epstein hanged in his cell, the report said.

The report said Epstein had "one end of a piece of orange cloth around his neck and the other end tied to the top portion of a bunkbed in Epstein's cell."

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Immediately after finding Epstein, jail staff activate a "body alarm" to alert the entire staff that there is a medical emergency. Workers in the control center at the jail call 911.

Jail staff then rip the orange cloth, the report said, causing Epstein to drop to the ground. They start CPR on Epstein.

6:33 a.m. Prison medical staff arrive and continue CPR on Epstein, the report said. They use a defibrillator and move Epstein to the Health Services Unit at the jail.

Paramedics arrive next and perform CPR, the report said. They also intubate Epstein and give him medicine and fluids.

7:10 a.m. The ambulance takes Epstein to New York Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital.

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7:36 a.m. Epstein is pronounced dead by an ER physician.

Meanwhile, staff at the jail failed to recover video from the DVR recording system. The Bureau of Prisons began repairs on the system and the FBI claimed all hard drives in the faulty system.

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