Fakest fake news of the week: 'Jeffery Epstein definitely killed himself', sez NY Chief Medical Examiner

Kevin Breuninger
CNBC
Fri, 16 Aug 2019 20:48 UTC

Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide by hanging himself in his jail cell, the New York medical examiner said Friday.

Epstein, 66, was found in his cell in Manhattan federal lockup Saturday morning and transferred to a nearby hospital, where he was subsequently pronounced dead. His autopsy was performed Sunday, NBC News reported, citing two law enforcement officials.

Epstein was remanded to jail pending trial on charges of sex trafficking of minors and sex trafficking conspiracy, which were lodged by federal prosecutors in Manhattan last month. He was accused of abusing dozens of underage girls in his mansions in New York and Palm Beach, Florida, between 2002 and 2005.

He had pleaded not guilty to the charges, which carried a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison if convicted.

Epstein, a former friend of Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, had been found semi-conscious and with marks on his neck in his cell less than three weeks before his death. He was placed on suicide watch in a so-called Special Housing Unit for at-risk inmates — but was reportedly taken back off suicide watch after about a week.

Comment: In hindsight, the first 'attempt' was probably done to 'lay groundwork', so that his later, 'actual', suicide sounded plausible. Not that most Americans are buying it anyway...

More than two thirds of Americans don't believe Epstein died by suicide

A lawyer for Epstein's former cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, told NBC that the cellmate had been cleared of any wrongdoing in that July 23 incident.

The death of possibly the most high-profile inmate in the country infuriated officials and allowed conspiracy theories to about a possible murder to run wild, especially on social media.

Attorney General William Barr, whose Department of Justice oversees the Bureau of Prisons, said he was "appalled" that Epstein had died while incarcerated. Barr also vowed that the FBI and the DOJ's internal watchdog office would investigate the "serious irregularities" at that jail, the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan.

The DOJ said Tuesday that the jail's warden at the time, Lamine N'Diaye, would be replaced on Barr's orders.

The Washington Post's report Thursday only fueled more suspicion by reporting that Epstein had broken his hyoid bone in his neck — a circumstance that some experts say is more common in strangulations than in hangings.

Comment: Dead men tell no tales.

The network he was part of is safe to continue preying on children.

George Galloway holds forth:

More mysteries surround Epstein's last days. The New York Post reports:

Jeffrey Epstein spent at least two hours locked up alone with a mystery woman — possibly part of his legal team — just a day after he was taken off suicide watch at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, according to a new report.

A visiting attorney, who asked that his name not be used, told Forbes Thursday that he saw the young woman with Epstein on July 30, when the disgraced financier was transferred into the facility's Special Housing Unit.

"The optics were startling," the attorney told the outlet. "Because she was young. And pretty."

He speculated that the woman could be a lawyer — as the multimillionaire paid members of his legal team to visit him for nearly eight hours a day, so he could avoid his cell and sit in a room designated for attorney meetings, NBC News reported last week.

The visiting attorney told Forbes that when he visited that day, Epstein's main lawyer, Reid Weingarten, wasn't there — and neither were any of his other known attorneys. It was only the mystery woman.

"If I was him, I would have hired ... an old bald guy," the lawyer said.

The woman didn't seem to be carrying any files and was dressed casually — leading the attorney to believe that she was a first-year associate, according to the report.

"It was slacks and a blouse. ... Could have been jeans or another kind of pants," he told Forbes. "But, like, Sunday brunch attire."

"I think she was there just to babysit him, and keep him out of his cell, and just keep him company for eight hours a day," he added. "Which is not supposed to be the way it works."