The US financier, awaiting trial on child sex abuse charges, was not on suicide watch despite trying to take his own life last month
August 11, 2019 08:34
By JC Reporter
The death of Jeffrey Epstein, whose body was discovered in his prison cell on Saturday in an apparent suicide, has triggered calls for an official inquiry and a wave of conspiracy theories online.
The US financier, awaiting trial on charges of trafficking underage girls for sex, appeared not to be on suicide watch this weekend even though he had attempted to take his own life less than three weeks ago.
Epstein was given daily psychiatric evaluations after July 23, when he was found unconscious in his cell with marks around his neck, but he was removed from suicide watch and returned to a segregated area of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan on July 29, the New York Times reported.
The 66-year-old, already convicted of soliciting prostitution with a minor a decade ago, had been denied bail in this year’s case and was facing up to 45 years in prison.
He had pleaded not guilty.
Some accusers had described being abused by his friends and colleagues in a so-called sex-trafficking ring.
Politicians, law enforcement officials and Epstein’s alleged victims expressed shock that he could have taken his own life under such circumstances.
The US Attorney General Bill Barr said he was “appalled” and said the Justice Department would investigate. The FBI announced a separate probe.
Epstein’s ties to recognised individuals around the world including President Donald Trump, Prince Andrew and the former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak prompted online theorists to speculate his death was not a suicide, or that it had been staged.
A widely-circulated doctored photograph appears to show Epstein alongside Mr Trump and his daughter Ivanka, while this weekend Mr Trump himself shared a tweet that alleged Epstein had died because he “had information on [former president] Bill Clinton”.
[CW: antisemitism] More claims that Judaism promotes pedophilia, that Epstein was killed to protect Jews working to bring about the rise of the anti-Christ, that Epstein, Bryan Singer & Son of Sam were Jewish supremacists(???), & that the Jewish State of New York killed Epstein. pic.twitter.com/MGsrohK7f8
— Alexander (@purplechrain) August 10, 2019
Both Mr Trump and Mr Clinton deny being privy to Epstein’s scheme.
As the hashtag #EpsteinMurder trended worldwide, thousands shared conspiracies on Twitter alleging Epstein had been a Mossad agent, that his killing had been ordered by a “Jewish mafia” or that the Talmud contains passages that justified sex abuse children who are not Jewish.
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who now works as a lawyer for Mr Trump, sustained the theories by tweeting: “Follow the motives”
What does the word watch mean in the phrase suicide
— Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) August 10, 2019
Watch? Who was watching? What does camera show? It is inconceivable Epstein could have hung himself if there was a suicide Watch? Follow the motives.
But Preet Bhara, the former federal prosecutor in Manhattan, said Epstein’s apparent suicide would likely have been recorded by cameras in the prison.
"One hopes it is complete, conclusive, and secured," he tweeted.
