Jeffrey Epstein, the politically connected financier charged recently with sexually abusing dozens of young girls in the early 2000s, died Saturday after apparently hanging himself in a detention facility, officials said.
The FBI, the Justice Department's inspector general and the New York City medical examiner all launched inquiries into how the high-profile inmate could have died in federal custody.
Epstein, 66, had previously been placed on suicide watch -- though he was removed before Saturday -- and was in a purportedly more secure unit of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan when he was found unresponsive in his cell about 6:30 a.m. Saturday, officials said.
Accusers and their lawyers expressed frustration that the financier won't have to face them in court.
"Epstein is gone, but justice must still be served," said Jennifer Araoz, who accused Epstein of raping her when she was 15 years old. "I hope the authorities will pursue and prosecute his accomplices and enablers and ensure redress for his victims."
Geoff Berman, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said authorities plan to keep open the investigation into those who might have conspired with Epstein to facilitate abuse.
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"Today's events are disturbing, and we are deeply aware of their potential to present yet another hurdle to giving Epstein's many victims their day in Court," Berman said in a statement. "To those brave young women who have already come forward and to the many others who have yet to do so, let me reiterate that we remain committed to standing for you, and our investigation of the conduct charged in the Indictment -- which included a conspiracy count -- remains ongoing."
The Bureau of Prisons and Attorney General William Barr called the death an "apparent suicide," though one official cautioned that the investigation was in its early stages and that no final determination had been made.
That official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Barr said in a statement that he was "appalled" to learn of Epstein's death in federal custody, which he said "raises serious questions that must be answered."
Epstein's defense team -- lawyers Reid Weingarten, Marty Weinberg and Michael Miller -- declined to comment on the cause of death. "We are enormously sorry to learn of today's news. No one should die in jail," they said in a statement.
Epstein, a multimillionaire and registered sex offender with ties to celebrities and politicians including President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton, was arrested last month on federal sex-trafficking charges that could have led to a 45-year prison sentence.
Prosecutors said in their indictment that he and his employees had engaged in a scheme to take girls as young as 14 to both his Upper East Side mansion and his palatial waterfront home in Palm Beach, Fla., between 2002 and 2005.
Epstein had pleaded innocent in the case, and a federal judge had recently denied his request to be released to home confinement. Epstein was appealing that decision.
INMATES' WELFARE
Epstein's death raises questions about how the Bureau of Prisons ensures the welfare of high-profile inmates.
Last month, Epstein was found unconscious in his cell with marks on his neck. Prison officials had been investigating that incident as a possible suicide attempt.
Epstein had been on suicide watch after he was found injured on July 23, and he received a daily psychiatric evaluation, according to a person familiar with his detention. He was removed from suicide watch on July 29 and returned to the Special Housing Unit, an area of the lockup with extra security, the person said.
Authorities did not immediately explain why he was taken off suicide watch.
The Bureau of Prisons confirmed that he had been held in the detention facility's Special Housing Unit, which separates high-profile inmates from the general population. Until recently, the same unit had been home to the Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who is now serving a life sentence at the Supermax prison in Colorado.
Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, a Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote Saturday in a letter to Barr that "heads must roll" after the incident.
"Every single person in the Justice Department -- from your Main Justice headquarters staff all the way to the night-shift jailer -- knew that this man was a suicide risk, and that his dark secrets couldn't be allowed to die with him," Sasse wrote.
Cameron Lindsay, a former warden who ran three federal lockups, said the death represents "an unfortunate and shocking failure, if proven to be a suicide."
"Unequivocally, he should have been on active suicide watch and therefore under direct and constant supervision," Lindsay said.
Epstein's removal from suicide watch would have been approved by both the warden of the facility and its chief psychologist, said Jack Donson, a former prison official who worked for the Bureau of Prisons for more than two decades.
An attorney for Epstein, Marc Fernich, said in a statement that jailers at the Metropolitan Correctional Center failed to protect Epstein and to prevent the "calamity" of his death.
Fernich also said that reporters, plaintiffs' lawyers and court officials "should be ashamed of their behavior" after Epstein's indictment last month. He said Epstein had "long since paid his debt to society" for his crimes.
Epstein's case had attracted widespread attention -- in part because of his wealth and political connections, and in part because of a plea deal he reached more than a decade ago to resolve similar allegations. That 2008 agreement allowed Epstein to plead guilty to two state charges in Florida, avoiding federal exposure entirely, and spend 13 months in jail, with work-release privileges.
SEEKING JUSTICE
Representatives for those who allege Epstein abused them said his death was not the justice they had sought.
"The fact that Jeffrey Epstein was able to commit the selfish act of taking his own life as his world of abuse, exploitation and corruption unraveled is both unfortunate and predictable," said Brad Edwards, a lawyer for some of Epstein's accusers. "While he and I engaged in contentious legal battles for more than a decade, this is not the ending anyone was looking for. The victims deserved to see Epstein held accountable, and he owed it to everyone he hurt to accept responsibility for all of the pain he caused."
Epstein's death came less than 24 hours after a court unsealed a cache of records laying out details about Epstein's alleged activities and the people in his orbit who might have observed them.
The documents include depositions, police incident reports, photographs, receipts, flight logs and a memoir written by Virginia Giuffre, who said she was a sex-trafficking victim of Epstein and his acquaintances.
Sigrid McCawley, a lawyer for some of the accusers, said the timing of Epstein's death was "no coincidence," and she was hopeful that the government could continue to investigate "those who participated and facilitated Epstein's horrifying sex-trafficking scheme that damaged so many."
"The reckoning of accountability begun by the voices of brave and truthful victims should not end with Jeffrey Epstein's cowardly and shameful suicide," McCawley said.
Attorney Lisa Bloom, who represents two accusers, said on MSNBC that she plans to file a civil lawsuit against Epstein's estate in an effort to collect money for her clients. She called on the executors of his estate to freeze Epstein's assets and not begin to distribute them to his beneficiaries.
Information for this article was contributed by Matt Zapotosky, Devlin Barrett, Renae Merle, Carol D. Leonnig, Rosalind S. Helderman, Sarah Ellison, Manuel Roig-Franzia, Seung Min Kim and Lori Rosza of The Washington Post; by Jim Mustian, Michael R. Sisak, Michael Balsamo, Curt Anderson, Jennifer Peltz, David Klepper and Larry Neumeister of The Associated Press; and by William K. Rashbaum, Benjamin Weiser and Michael Gold of The New York Times.
A Section on 08/11/2019