Prosecutors Declined to Charge Jail Employees In Alleged Jeffrey Epstein Suicide Cover-Up

A new and long-awaited report from the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General affirms, on the basis of a new investigation, that the financier and sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in the Manhattan Correctional Center, or MCC, in 2019, while awaiting trial on human trafficking charges. 

The report excoriates the Bureau of Prisons, or BOP, which oversaw the MCC, for “significant job performance and management failures on the part of BOP personnel and widespread disregard of BOP policies … depriving his numerous victims, many of whom were underage girls at the time of the alleged crimes, of their ability to seek justice.” It  makes eight specific recommendations for BOP reform, while noting “chronic staffing, surveillance, safety and security, and related problems plaguing the BOP,” and calls for the BOP to review the conduct of personnel as described in the report with an eye toward whether discipline or “other administrative action” is warranted.

The report also points to a pattern of obfuscation from some jail employees, who, per the OIG, tried to fudge how often they checked on Epstein and other inmates during their rounds in order to combat the perception that they’d been negligent in checking on a high-profile inmate who’d previously tried to kill himself. 

The report spans 128 pages, and adds to a body of existing evidence about the events leading up to Epstein’s death, including a July 23, 2019 incident in which Epstein, it has been reported, attempted to die by suicide—details of which have been redacted from previous records releases. And it adds significant new detail about how, and when, jail employees falsified their records to make it appear as though they’d performed their rounds as often as they were required to do. 

Per the report, inmates in the SHU, the solitary confinement unit where Epstein was kept, were locked in their cell at 8 p.m. on August 9. That included Epstein, who was housed in a cell alone. “A search of Epstein’s cell following his death revealed Epstein had excess prison blankets, linens, and clothing in his cell, and that some had been ripped to create nooses,” the OIG report reads. “Only one SHU cell search was documented on August 9, and it was not of Epstein’s cell. BOP records did not indicate when Epstein’s cell was last searched. The OIG also found that SHU staff did not conduct any 30-minute rounds after about 10:40 p.m. on August 9 and that none of the required SHU inmate counts were conducted after 4 p.m. on August 9. Count slips and round sheets were falsified to show that they had been performed.” Epstein was discovered dead in his cell on August 10.

The report also mentions that two MCC employees were charged in 2019 for falsifying records regarding Epstein’s incarceration. (The charging documents also specified that the two officers had fallen asleep while on duty.) The charges were ultimately dropped in December 2021, when the officers entered into a deferred prosecution agreement. But according to the new OIG report, other jail employees who’d also falsified records were never charged.

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined prosecution for other MCC New York employees who the OIG found created false documentation,” the report reads. 

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York acknowledged a request for comment from Motherboard about why other jail employees were not charged, but did not provide comment before publication. (Update: after publication, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District told Motherboard, "I cannot comment on uncharged individuals.")

While Epstein’s death was high profile, it’s not the only time that BOP officials have been accused of falsifying records, the report adds. 

“Regrettably,” it reads, “the OIG has encountered similar issues on many other occasions. For example, the OIG has investigated numerous allegations related to the falsification of official BOP documentation concerning inmate counts and rounds, several of which have resulted in criminal prosecution. The OIG currently has two open investigations into allegations of falsified inmate count and round documentation, each involving an inmate death (by suicide and homicide) or escape from a BOP facility.” 

The report is unlikely—as is any other evidence—to quell the suspicions of people who do not believe Epstein died by suicide. But OIG investigators “did not uncover evidence that contradicted the FBI’s determination regarding the absence of criminality in connection with how Epstein died.” 

Significantly, in addition to jail staffers offering no information that would suggest Epstein was murdered, the report states that of 15 prisoners who agreed to be interviewed, none—including 10 who were housed alongside Epstein in a special housing unit, or SHU, the night of his death—had any credible information suggesting he did not die by suicide. Three inmates “with a direct line of sight to the door of Epstein’s cell from their cells stated that no one entered or exited Epstein’s cell after the SHU staff returned Epstein to his cell” the night he died. Analysis of available surveillance video did not show anyone approaching the tier on which Epstein was housed the night he died. (Some surveillance cameras in the jail weren’t working that night, something which the report details at length.) Forensic evidence, including a lack of evidence of struggle, was also consistent with suicide.

One of the most intriguing elements of the report is the level of detail on what happened July 23, 2019, given that one mysterious element of Epstein’s death is why prison psychologists deemed him not a suicide risk when he had apparently already attempted to hang himself. Records about this topic released to Motherboard via requests under the Freedom of Information Act have been heavily redacted, citing an ongoing investigation.

The report first details what is known about this incident:

It then details how Epstein gave information suggesting his cellmate had tried to kill him.

The next day, he told jail medical staffers that while he didn’t want to talk about how he sustained the injuries to his neck, he “believed that his cellmate had something to do with it.” A BOP investigation “was unable to determine whether Epstein harmed himself or had been assaulted,” but Epstein was nonetheless quickly removed from suicide watch.

The report concludes with eight specific recommendations for reform in BOP policy, ranging from technical changes to suicide watch procedures to “The BOP should continue to develop and implement plans to address staffing shortages at its prisons” and “The BOP should enhance existing policies regarding institutional security camera systems to ensure they specifically state that such systems must have the capacity to record video.”

MCC, the facility where Epstein was held, was temporarily closed in 2021, after the Justice Department—echoing years of complaints from activists, lawyers, and inmates—found conditions were too poor to keep people incarcerated there any longer. The facility has not reopened. 

The OIG report can be read in full below: