Jeffrey Epstein (image via screengrab)
The Justice Department continues to release documents around the investigation of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Among the trove included "records on his death in New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center."
In a Friday report, the Washington Post said that the details continue to confirm that Epstein committed suicide, which his brother Mark Epstein disputes.
Epstein was indicted in 2019, and in August of that year, he was found dead in his cell.
"The day before his death, federal judges in a separate civil lawsuit had unsealed 2,000 pages of records containing allegations of his sexual abuse of girls and young women," the report noted.
The report also said that "New York City’s chief medical examiner, Barbara Sampson, whose office had conducted an autopsy of Epstein’s body, issued a finding that he had hanged himself" just six days after his death.
Still, conspiracy theories have spread about the dozens of men who would have benefited from Epstein's death, including President Donald Trump, Epstein's brother said.
"Two jail staff members were charged after Epstein’s death with failing to watch him," recalled the report. "Prosecutors said they slept through part of their shift, whiled away time shopping online and falsified log books to conceal their failure to conduct rounds every 30 minutes. They ultimately reached a deal to avoid trial. Jail officials also left Epstein alone in his cell, despite strict instructions not to do so."
Before Epstein's suicide, there was another attempt. It was then that Epstein was placed on suicide watch, and an observation log was detailed. It was among the documents released this week. The document said that Epstein told corrections officers that it was his cellmate who tried to kill him.
"Epstein told investigators in a July 31 interview that he hadn’t slept in 'approximately 20 days,' according to the investigative report. He said he had woken up on the floor to the sound of snoring that turned out to be his own," the report said.
The cellmate said that he awoke to Epstein snoring with his eyes wide open.
"The documents also contain correspondence from the same period between a prison associate warden and a Bureau of Prisons regional director who asked for daily updates on Epstein after his apparent suicide attempt," the report added.