Global Courant
Jeffrey Epstein hanged himself in his cell with an orange noose he made from “a sheet or shirt,” according to a new report released Tuesday.
The Justice Department Inspector General’s report details the failures that occurred from a month before the death of the disgraced financier in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons.
Jeffrey Epstein is pictured in Cambridge, Mass., September 8, 2004.
Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty Images, FILE
When officers discovered Epstein in his cell on August 10, 2019, Officer Michael Thomas, who was charged criminally in the case, said, according to the report, “Breathe, Epstein, Breathe.”
When Thomas saw Epstein dangling from the bed, he said, “We’re going to be in a lot of trouble,” the report said.
When Epstein’s room was searched after his death, investigators found extra sheets, another mattress and a noose, according to the report.
The Metropolitan Correctional Center is in Manhattan, August 14, 2019. Kenyan national Cholo Abdi Abdullah was charged by phone while being held at the MCC in New York, December 16, 2020.
LightRocket via Getty Images, FILE
Epstein died by hanging at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
On August 10, the Inspector General said Epstein was in his cell at 8 p.m. Officials said he made an unrecorded call on a landline that was not monitored by prison communications. Epstein told officers that according to the report, he called his mother, but she had died before that date. The report said staffers should have followed this call from Epstein.
After 10:40 p.m., Epstein was neither checked nor followed until officers discovered him hanging from his cell, the report said.
Jeffrey Epstein appears in a photo taken for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services sex offender registry, March 28, 2017.
New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services via Reuters, FILE
Epstein first attempted suicide in custody on July 23, 2019, and the Inspector General’s report said Bureau of Prisons employees should have been on the alert then.
On July 30, the inspector general said an email had been sent to 70 staffers of the prison’s physiological unit instructing that Epstein be placed with a cellmate. But the inspector general said the warning was not heeded by Bureau of Prisons staff.
The report is linked to nearly 4,000 pages of documents obtained by reporters earlier this month under a freedom of information request.
The documents show that towards the end of his life, Epstein sat alone in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, repeatedly calling himself a coward out loud.
Thomas and his partner were charged with manipulating the logs to make it appear they completed their rounds when they had not, officials said. Both pleaded guilty.
Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate of Epstein, was convicted in December 2021 of conspiring with Epstein to recruit, groom and abuse minors and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
