It’s almost the one week anniversary of Jeffrey Epstein’s death, and there are still NO answers. We know that there were “serious irregularities” around Epstein’s death and we also know that there were “multiple breaks” in Epstein’s neck, possibly due to self-inflicted hanging suicide or possibly due to…??? The coroner hasn’t made a determination beyond that. And even one week later, no one at the Manhattan jail can answer very basic questions about the circumstances in and around Epstein’s jail cell. Very basic questions like “did you guys check on him or what?” or “who found his body?” or “why were the surveillance cameras mysteriously turned off in the window of his mysterious death?” No, we don’t know for sure that the cameras were turned off, but notice that no one seems to be in a rush to talk about any surveillance footage that might exist. From CNN:
Five days after Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide, federal Bureau of Prisons officials are struggling to establish even rudimentary facts of what happened over several key hours inside a prison rife with greater problems than previously known. Many questions remain, among them:
What does surveillance video show, which cameras were operational and do the logs of inmate checks match the video that exists?
Who found Epstein: Was it a staffer making rounds delivering breakfast? Or did that staffer arrive to find someone already administering aid?
Why was Epstein’s cellmate moved out on Friday, the day before Epstein died?
What were the two guards who were supposed to monitor Epstein doing during the hours before he was found? Were they napping or did they simply fail to make the required checks every 30 minutes?
A confluence of missteps and what the Justice Department says were irregularities at the Manhattan Correctional Center have created a puzzle that FBI investigators are still trying to unravel. Even top officials in the department have been frustrated by their inability to get some answers from the prison, in part because initial answers turned out to be inaccurate in some cases. In one instance over the weekend, officials believed the former Epstein cellmate had been released on bail. But it turns out he had been moved to another facility, one person briefed on the matter said. One of the first tasks for FBI agents this week was interviewing that former cellmate, who could provide information on Epstein’s behavior in the days before his suicide.
The CNN piece goes on to say that this is the first “crisis” AG Bill Barr has faced, which… short memories, huh? CNN also sort of blames unions for, you know, protecting federal employees like these prison guards. Like it’s such a disaster that federal employees know their rights and that these particular prison guards absolutely know that they’re about to get blamed for all of this. Granted, much of it could be their fault and the fault of the prison system writ large. What I can’t help but think is… imagine if this mysterious death was that of someone with less of a profile than Jeffrey Epstein. Except I don’t have to imagine it – in-custody deaths happen all the time and the prison system and endless bureaucracy help to mute those stories. Epstein’s death is the exception because it happened to a rich white guy with endless political connections. Anyway, how f–king crazy is it that the FBI doesn’t even have answers to basic questions like “Who found Epstein’s body?” It’s mind-boggling.
Photos courtesy of Getty, Backgrid.
Nobody wants to investigate in these case.
The people who should be on the side of the victims and the public are doing everything they can to protect probably their bosses. I do think someone big in the FBI is involved to the cover-up. They are so quick to kill and dismiss young black men, but ehi … no one wants to answers to basic answer from the first class of “Basics of Investigation”.
I am so hurt by this, by all of this.
I don’t know. I’d venture to say the FBI and DOJ, at least some very key people in the agencies, do have many more answers to much of it but is managing to keep it locked down.
And FWIW, the BOP is understaffed because their budget keeps getting cut along with intermittent federal hiring freezes so guards are pulling long shifts and working tons of overtime. The latest PR that the BOP is some rogue agency in the DOJ is a load of crap. No, they aren’t perfect and like any agency their are great, average and subpar employee.
Decisions to transfer prisoners from cells or facilities is not made at the guard level. They may very well have been asleep and not checking on him, but they aren’t high enough up the org chart to make decisions to turn off cameras, etc.
Yes, like any good investigation. It’s been a week, the fact that everyone expects answers so quick is kind of ridiculous. This whole conspiracy thing is ridiculous too, people kill themselves in jail quite frequently, he tried like a week before. In the end, a monster is dead, everyone knows he was a monster and a trial wouldn’t make much of a difference because eventually he was going to make a deal. Any punishment he might have received would never be enough.
Except no one had killed themselves where Epstein was in decades? It’s not like they are dropping like flies there. So I think people who keep repeating this line are kind of obfuscating a few things. Just my opinion.
Bryn, you’re missing the point. THIS time there would be no deal and that is why he was either killed or allowed to kill himself. Plain and simple. There are more facts leaning toward that than against it so I see no conspiracy, and I’m the first to shut many of them down. It’s not paranoia that he was allowed to be in a position that he could even accomplish such a thing. It’s fact and to say otherwise IS the point that is reaching.
Worse, and forget any deal that could or could not be made, his victims deserved their day in court and this coward deserved to hear every impact statement made, his face deserved to be plastered on every page during trial and humiliated at every turn until his “natural” life ended. Hopefully not until he did a Looong stint in prison.
This would have been ideal closure for the people who counted AND the proper comeuppance for those who should have been indicted and shamed. At least publicly.
I knew, however, it wouldn’t happen sadly. I was correct. Sadly.
I really hope the victims find closure within themselves and those culpable, never have another day of peace this life…and may it be a long one. Just like Epstein’s should have been had anyone done their job and/or not been corrupted.
Only a fool would think otherwise.
Investigate everyone involved and burn it down, I say. Don’t let the bastards and bitchez involved rest.
I don’t think there is a conspiracy, although if it did end up being a big tangled plot I wouldn’t be surprised either. I think it’s finally Trump’s lack of management skills and not hiring people which caused this to happen. Apparently, the number of guards are not enough and several prison teachers are guarding. Plus the facility is a shambles and has been for a long time, but is seriously worse now. This is a terrible DOJ facility and Epstein was not guarded properly so he had the chance to kill himself and he did. Just cause it’s not a conspiracy doesn’t mean something didn’t go wrong, and people should be held accountable, i.e. Barr and Trump.
Exactly. An underfunded and understaffed agency tasked with maintaining an ever growing population made mistakes. At first I thought it was a hit, but it looks like it was the result of a federal bureaucracy that is slow moving, short sighted, and inert to change.
@Megan, the simplest answer is usually right. Until we see more evidence to the contrary, I believe you are correct.
When did Bill Barr learn that Epstein was taken off suicide watch?
Did he ok it?
Start with him
… Bill Barr is not the man who would have to okay Epstein being taken of suicide watch. Do you really think they go to the At Gen for approval every time a prisoner is taken off suicide watch?
No Ertia, of course not, . But Bill Barr, one day after recusing himself, due to his own involvement via Acosta and the conflict of interest w/dad, un recused himself the next day saying-this case was so important, he needed to personally insure that it was handled properly. So yeah-he was being kept abreast-no? He took the lead on this one. El Chapo made it out ok so yeah I think Barr has some questions to answer
But that’s also not what happened. He was always recused from one part relating to work done with his old firm, and never recused from the rest.
I suggest you look up the facts before commenting. It’’s difficult to educate you in order to debate you…
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/09/bill-barr-will-not-recuse-himself-in-jeffrey-epstein-prosecution.html
– Attorney General William Barr will not recuse himself from involvement in the new federal criminal prosecution of accused child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
– But Barr will recuse himself from an internal Justice Department probe of current Labor Secretary Alex Acosta’s involvement in approving a controversial no-prosecution deal with the wealthy financier a decade ago, officials said Tuesday.
Those are the facts as reported, but if you have alternative facts I’m open to reading them.
Good for you reading up!
I stand by my comment.
I can see you’re angry at being caught out in a lie, but I didn’t need to read up.
The facts support my original statement.
If you’d like to provide something to go along with your speculation, you’re free to.
Does the FBI want answers? Serious question.
(My cynicism runs deep with this case, evidently.)
Serious answer: possibly not. I recently watched all the president’s men and have been reading about the Watergate scandal. There were cover-ups from the top down in both the CIA and the FBI to prevent the truth from getting out. If not for the secret cia informant deep throat giving covert info to the Washington Post’s Woodward, it probably would have been covered up indefinitely.
From what I know of prison investigations into inmate deaths:
The investigations are conducted by or with the assistance of internal affairs;
All on duty in that cell block would have been required to file an incident report as would all medical personnel who responded;
All surveillance rounds, identities of everyone entering/exiting the cell block, and inmate movements are recorded;
The video cameras would have been reviewed immediately;
All officers working that shift would have been reassigned or detached with pay pending the investigation. They also would be told they could only discuss it with the investigators.
I find it interesting that this is the same prison where El Chapo was held, yet no irregularities occurred during his entire (long) stay. If the powerful want irregularities to happen, they will happen. There was no way Epstein was ever going to make it to trial.
I don’t usually subscribe to conspiracy theories, but, damn, this is the stuff of John Grisham novels.
How do you know that no irregularities occurred during El Chapo’s stay?
I mean “irregularities” parenthetically, of course. El Chapo made it through trial, alive.
Maybe El Chapo didn’t really want to kill himself? I mean drug lords life is prison is elevated a bit more than a pedophile. I can see why Epstein really wanted to kill himself. Not sure why the prison didn’t get that but who knows.
I feel that this tweet that I retweeted and bookmarked says it best:
“Guys, stop with the conspiracies. All that happened was an extremely rich man who had proof that dozens of extremely powerful people were pedophiles committed suicide by himself while being on suicide watch with no footage whatsoever”
He wasn’t on suicide watch.
Yes I know. We all know. That tweet was made before they confessed he was pulled from suicide watch. And it still stands.
WHY WAS’NT HE ON SUICIDE WATCH?
This needs to be answered.
Ertia, he wasn’t on suicide watch you say?? If so, why not. Didn’t he just attempt it.
You’re not making sense. Or, rather, you’re making Kelly Conway sense. And your using of the term ‘alternative facts’ did it for me.
When did it become okay to dispute facts and just toddler tantrum a lie into truth. Let me guess…2016
I think they removed the suicide watch and removed his cellmate to allow his suicide. I do think it was suicide and that a lot of people are relieved. These important people influenced his care, hoping for his death by suicide. Clean hands, desired result.
Thank you for continuing to show this picture of Epstein and Trump. I’m so sick of my red friends on FB touting some Clinton conspiracy when the Clintons are far from the only ones in the room here. I keep copying and pasting this photo in those peoples comments, and then I’m usually dumped which is fine. I honestly need to get off social media all together rn. Lol.
100% this!!! First we only have a connection with one Clinton, Bill. Unlike Bill and Donald, Hillary was never on Epstein’s jet. I am so sick of the sexist crap. She’s not responsible for her husband.
Second, it is highly possible some of these people didn’t know what was going on. The way these criminal enterprises work is by taking a legitimate business and mixing it with the criminal. Not everyone knows. Now sure some maybe saw some questionable things, but people are really good at putting their heads in the sand. I’m not trying to defend anyone, but I do think this is how these things get so big. Other people help the legitimate business, and the criminal enterprise unknowingly. The key is to find the people who are conspirators. I can see how this might take time, but it just doesn’t seem like much effort is being put into it. Plus, the other thing odd about Epstein, what was his legitimate business? I’ve not heard enough about that.
Come on. It’s been less than a week. Real world criminal investigations don’t wrap up in an hour (or two if it’s a two-parter) and the FBI doesn’t give a play-by-play. Who wants fast food justice anyway?
I am disgusted by this President and this photo.
Epstein visited the White House several times during the Clinton presidency. Printing this picture of him with Trump is disingenuous.
Do you have a link to photos of Epstein with the Clintons? Commenters would be here for that. But it doesn’t negate Trump’s relationship with JE.
Sorry you are being disingenuous. Epstein was a donor to Clinton. Epstein did go to the White House a couple times for donor functions, but he did not meet with President Clinton, but with some aides. Apparently, people were trying to get them to meet in person, but no one including Fox can find any records of them actually meeting in person while Clinton was in office. However, after office, he did meet Epstein and use his plane several times. Now the I like Clinton crowd are saying Clinton was using him for his plane for his philanthropic trips, i.e. when he went to Africa talking about AIDs. The I hate Clinton crowd is saying he was part of the sex trafficking scheme. The woman who is the center of the first criminal complaint, said Clinton did go to Epstein’s island, which Clinton denies. She also says she did not have sex with Clinton, nor see Clinton on the island, nor know any girl who had sex with him on the island. So kind of a mixed bag for Clinton on this.
Now Trump there are many pictures of Trump with Epstein, and even Trump admits he met him in the 80’s and from all accounts was still friendly with him until around 2008. Depending on what story you see they had a falling out cause of his criminal charges, or because of an acrimonious land deal with Epstein driving up the price on a piece of property Trump eventually bought. Trump’s own words when they were friend was Jeffrey is a terrific guy. He likes his social life and beautiful women on the young side. They both were part of the Manhattan party scene of 80’s and 90’s. Tons of pictures of this time at many parties both at Mar-a-largo and Epstein’s estate. Rumor was Epstein introduced Trump to Melania. Now the girl who was the center of Epstein’s criminal suit in 2008 was a 16 year old spa attendant at Mar-a-lar-go when she was recruited by the Maxwell woman to be part of Epstein’s sex girls. Similar to Clinton, she did not claim Trump assaulted her, but she did get into it from her employment with Trump. Now in 2016 a woman who was 13 at the time did accuse Trump of raping her at one of Epstein’s orgies. She was financially backed by an anti Trump group and it kind of fizzled out as she was trying to do it anonymously. A bit more evidence against Trump, but still could swing either way.
I think it’s perfectly fine having a picture of Epstein with Trump. Ultimately, Trump is President and was in charge of the prison Epstein died in. As of today, Clinton is retired from any government work and although he might end up being implicated in Epstein, as of now he has no power in the investigation or anything, while Trump is the head of all of it. Sure he doesn’t make everyday decisions, but he is everyone’s ultimate boss.
Bringing up the Clinton presidency which is decades ago, only shows where your prejudice lies. Why didn’t you bring up Dershowiz, Prince Andrew, or Bill Gates who apparently was on his jet too?