Jeffrey Epstein, the jet-setting financier who was being held in the Manhattan Correctional Center while awaiting his trial on charges of child sex trafficking next year, died by suicide overnight, according to law enforcement. The FBI is investigating.
Epstein reportedly hanged himself and was found dead in his cell early Saturday morning. A gurney carrying Epstein’s body was wheeled out of the Manhattan Correctional Center around 7:30 a.m. this morning, according to reports. An ambulance then transported the body to New York Downtown Hospital.
The Bureau of Prisons released a statement on Saturday stating Epstein was found “unresponsive in his cell” located in the Special Housing Unit at around 6:30 a.m. this morning following “an apparent suicide.” Officials said life-saving efforts were immediately undertaken and that emergency medical services were quickly called. Epstein was brought to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
According to a spokesperson for NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner, “there is no official cause of death yet” as “the medical examiner has to do their job.”
“We are investigating the cause of death and we have an open case,” the spokesperson said.
The 14-page indictment against Epstein alleged that he sexually exploited dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York, and Palm Beach, among other locations, between 2002 and 2005 and perhaps beyond. Some of the victims were ostensibly as young as 14 at the time the alleged crimes occurred. Epstein allegedly “created a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit”and “maintained a steady supply of new victims.”
Epstein was reportedly found nearly unconscious on his cell floor with marks on his neck back in July, but it had never been officially confirmed by authorities whether he had attempted to take his own life, whether he’d been assaulted by another inmate, or whether it was a ploy to change prisons. He was subsequently placed on suicide watch, but NBC News reports that he “was in his cell but was not on suicide watch at the time of his death.”
Neither the Bureau of Prisons nor the Manhattan Correctional Center immediately responded to questions from the Washington Examiner about the circumstances of Epstein’s suicide and how it was allowed to happen.
Epstein’s apparent suicide followed the unsealing on Friday of 2,000 pages of court records by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit connected to the defamation lawsuit brought by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s on-again-off-again girlfriend and longtime associate whom Giuffre has accused of helping Epstein abuse her and other women when Giuffre was underage. The records included allegations by Giuffre that Maxwell instructed her to have sex with the U.K.’s Prince Andrew, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, and former Sen. George Mitchell as well as money manager Glenn Dubin and MIT professor Marvin Minksy, among other high-profile figures.
Before Friday, Epstein’s flight records spanning from 1999 through 2005 had been made public, but new flight manifests ranging from November 1995 through August 2013 were released yesterday. The records show Epstein crisscrossed the globe accompanied by tycoons, celebrities, employees, friends, and politicos.
The records show that now-President Trump rode on Epstein’s plane one time, flying from Palm Beach to Newark in January 1997. Although Trump and Epstein were friends in the 1990s, with the future president calling Epstein “terrific” in 2002, the two had a falling out and Trump reportedly banned him from Mar-a-Lago, saying in July that he was “never a fan” of Epstein.
A statement released on July 8 by former President Bill Clinton’s press secretary, Angel Ureña, claimed that “in 2002 and 2003, President Clinton took a total of four trips on Jeffrey Epstein’s airplane: One to Europe, one to Asia, and two to Africa,” but a Washington Examiner review of the flight manifest records shows that Clinton actually went on at least 27 flights on Epstein’s “Lolita Express” during at least six trips, not four. Clinton also claimed the former president only met with Epstein beginning in the early 2000s, but that has also been disproven following revelations that Epstein met Clinton years before when Epstein visited the White House multiple times in the early and mid-1990s and when Clinton attended a three-hour fundraising dinner in 1995 where Epstein was present. Clinton had praised Epstein in the past, but distanced himself when allegations of sexual misconduct emerged.
Alex Acosta, the former U.S. attorney for Southern Florida, reached an agreement in 2008 with Epstein’s attorneys, where Epstein was allowed to plead guilty to two state-level prostitution solicitation charges. Epstein served just 13 months of an 18-month stint at a Palm Beach County jail where he was allowed out on work release, paid restitution to certain victims, and registered as a sex offender. The agreement was reportedly struck before investigators had finished interviewing all the alleged victims and was kept secret from some of Epstein’s victims. Acosta left his Cabinet position amid increased scrutiny of the sweetheart deal.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced earlier this week that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement was launching an investigation into the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office to look at every aspect of Epstein’s case in Florida. The Justice Department said in February that it had also launched an internal inquiry into the handling of the Epstein case at the federal level, but the status of that investigation is not known.
The wealthy businessman was arrested at the airport in Teterboro, New Jersey, after returning from an overseas trip to Paris in early July. Epstein’s home in New York City was raided by law enforcement as well, and investigators found nude photographs of underage girls, thousands of dollars in cash, dozens of loose diamonds, and a foreign passport from the 1980s with Epstein’s picture and a false name.
Epstein’s used his wealth and connections to meet with famous scientists as he dabbled in pseudoscience and eugenics, reportedly wanting to seed humanity with his genes. Epstein used to brag to friends in the 1980s that he was an international bounty hunter working for the government or foreign dictators. And Epstein claimed that he only took on billionaire clients, although only one — Victoria’s Secret founder Les Wexner — is known to actually exist. Wexner claimed earlier this week that Epstein “deceived” him and misappropriated tens of millions of dollars from his charity a dozen years ago, but it’s not clear this was ever reported to the police.
Epstein’s lawyers had argued that Epstein should be allowed out on house arrest, asking the court to let him await trial in his Manhattan mansion. That request was denied. Besides his New York City mansion, Epstein also had an estate in Palm Beach, maintained a ranch in New Mexico, had a luxury apartment in Paris, and owned a private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
In denying him bail earlier this month, the judge said that Epstein posed a “significant” danger to the community and agreed with prosecutors that he was a serious flight risk.
