Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was found dead on Saturday after an apparent suicide in the New York jail cell where he was being held without bail on sex-trafficking charges, and a source said he was not on suicide watch at the time of his death.
Epstein, 66, faced up to 45 years behind bars on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges unsealed last month. He had pleaded not guilty and was awaiting a trial next year.
Epstein, a well-connected money manager dogged for years by allegations that he sexually abused girls and young women, was found hanging by his neck in his cell in the Special Housing Unit of the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) and taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which operates the lower Manhattan jail, said in a statement. It declined to comment further.
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The financier, who once counted Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic former President Bill Clinton as friends, was arrested on July 6 and pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking involving dozens of underage girls as young as 14, from at least 2002 to 2005.
The FBI and the Justice Department's Inspector General were opening investigations into his death, US Attorney General William Barr said, adding that he was "appalled" to learn of the apparent suicide in federal custody.
Last month, Epstein was found unconscious on the floor of his jail cell with marks on his neck, and officials were investigating that incident as a possible suicide or assault.
"Mr. Epstein's death raises serious questions that must be answered," Barr said in a statement.
Even though Epstein was found unconscious last month, he had recently been taken off suicide watch, a special set of procedures for inmates in danger of taking their own life, according to the source. The financier was in a cell by himself when his body was found.
It was not immediately clear why Epstein was taken off suicide watch.
At the MCC, two jail guards are required to make separate checks on all prisoners every 30 minutes, but that procedure was not followed overnight, according to the source. In addition, every 15 minutes guards are required to make another check on prisoners who are on suicide watch.
Guards generally remove any prisoner placed on suicide watch from the Special Housing Unit where Epstein was housed, according to a Twitter post by Preet Bharara, a former Manhattan-based US attorney. The unit separates inmates such as accused sex offenders from the general population for their protection.
Aja Davis, a spokeswoman for the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, said she could not say how Epstein died before her office examined the body.
Investigation to continue
Epstein was arrested on July 6 at a New Jersey airport after taking a private plane from Paris. Last month, a judge refused Epstein's request to release him on bail and allow him to live under 24-hour guard in his opulent townhouse on Manhattan's Upper East Side. The financier was appealing that ruling.
The indictment accused Epstein of knowingly recruiting underage women to engage in sex acts with him, sometimes over a period of years while paying the women for each encounter.
Prosecutors said a search of his townhouse, conducted under a warrant, uncovered evidence of hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of nude photographs of "what appeared to be underage girls," including some photos cataloged on compact discs and kept in a locked safe.
In a court filing on July 25, the government said it was pursuing an "ongoing investigation of uncharged individuals" in connection with the case.
That investigation, by the US Attorney's Office in Manhattan, will continue despite Epstein's death, a different source familiar with the matter said.
"Today's events are disturbing, and we are deeply aware of their potential to present yet another hurdle to giving Epstein's many victims their day in court," Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement. "Our investigation of the conduct charged in the indictment – which included a conspiracy count – remains ongoing."
The charges were announced more than a decade after he pleaded guilty in Florida to state charges of solicitation of prostitution from a minor in a deal with prosecutors that has been widely criticized as too lenient.
Conspiracy theories emerge
Epstein's apparent suicide launched new conspiracy theories online in a saga that has provided fodder for them for years, fueled by Epstein's ties to princes, politicians and other famous and powerful people.
Online theorists Saturday quickly offered unsubstantiated speculation – including some retweeted by Trump – that Epstein's death wasn't a suicide, or it was faked.
That chatter picked up on the conjecture that resurged after Epstein's July 6 arrest on allegations that he orchestrated a sex-trafficking ring designed to bring him teenage girls. Some of his accusers have described being sexually abused by the wealthy financier's friends and acquaintances.
The combination created fertile ground for theories and misinformation to breed on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
His relationships with Trump, Clinton, and Britain's Prince Andrew were at the center of those online rumors and theories, many of which question what politicians knew about Epstein's alleged sex crimes.
Others theories, however, have been easily debunked.
For example, days after his arrest online memes and Facebook statuses wrongly claimed the Obama administration, in order to protect Clinton, forged a once-secret deal in 2008 in Florida that allowed him to plead guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution to avoid more serious charges. The deal was actually executed before President Barack Obama took office, under former President George W. Bush.
Both Clinton and Trump have denied being privy to Epstein's alleged scheme.
Clinton spokesman Angel Ureña said the former president "knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago or those with which he has been recently charged in New York." He said that, in 2002 and 2003, Clinton took four trips on Epstein's plane with multiple stops and that staff and his Secret Service detail traveled on every leg.
Trump has acknowledged knowing Epstein but said he "had a falling out with him a long time ago."
Other Epstein theories floating online have been darker, especially after Epstein was found injured on the floor of his cell last month with bruises on his neck. Some online commentators described it as a "murder attempt."
"Men in high places want Epstein dead," one Twitter use wrote.
Hours after Epstein's death Saturday, as the hashtag #EpsteinMurder was trending worldwide on Twitter, the president joined Twitter speculation around Epstein's death while under the federal government's watch.
Trump, who rose to conservative prominence by falsely claiming Obama wasn't born in the US, retweeted unsubstantiated claims about Epstein's death.
Other politicians also took to social media to question the circumstances.
Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, the state where some of Epstein's alleged sexual abuse crimes took place, suggested the possibility that others might have been involved in Epstein's death when he called on corrections officials to explain what happened at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.
"The Federal Bureau of Prisons must provide answers on what systemic failures of the MCC Manhattan or criminal acts allowed this coward to deny justice to his victims," he tweeted.
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, now an attorney for Trump, tweeted out several questions about Epstein's death.
"Who was watching? What does camera show? … Follow the motives," Giuliani tweeted Saturday afternoon.
The FBI and the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General will investigate the circumstances surrounding Epstein's death, Attorney General William Barr said.
"Mr. Epstein's death raises serious questions that must be answered," Barr said in a news release.
Epstein's suicide was likely recorded by jail cameras, according to Preet Bharara, the former federal prosecutor in Manhattan.
"One hopes it is complete, conclusive, and secured," he tweeted.
Epstein's arrest last month launched separate investigations into how authorities handled his case initially when similar charges were first brought against him in Florida more than a decade ago. US Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta resigned last month after coming under fire for overseeing that deal when he was US attorney in Miami.
Epstein's lawyers maintained that the new charges in New York were covered by the 2008 plea deal and that Epstein hadn't had any illicit contact with underage girls since serving his 13-month sentence in Florida.
