Disgraced
financier Jeffrey Epstein was found dead on Saturday after an apparent suicide
in the New York jail cell where he was held without bail on US sex-trafficking
charges, and a source said he was not on suicide watch at the time of his
death.
Epstein,
66, was found unresponsive in his cell in the Special Housing Unit of the
Metropolitan Correctional Center and transported to a local hospital where he
was pronounced dead, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which operates the lower
Manhattan jail, said in a statement.
Epstein,
who was arrested on July 6, had pleaded not guilty to charges of sex
trafficking involving dozens of underage girls as young as 14, from at least
2002 to 2005.
Last
month, Epstein was found unconscious on the floor of his jail cell with marks
on his neck, according to media reports, and officials were investigating that
incident as a possible suicide or assault.
Despite
that incident, Epstein had been taken off suicide watch, a special set of
procedures for inmates deemed in danger of taking their own life, a source
familiar with the matter told Reuters. He was on suicide watch as late as
Thursday, the source said.
The
FBI was opening an investigation to determine whether proper procedures to
assure his safety were taken overnight, according to the source, who was not
authorized to speak on the record.
At
the MCC, two jail guards are required to make separate checks on all MCC
prisoners every 30 minutes, but that procedure was not followed overnight, the
source said.
In
addition, every 15 minutes guards are required to make another check on
prisoners who are on suicide watch.
The
well-connected money manager was known for socializing with politicians and
royalty. Over the years, he counted now President Donald Trump and former
Democratic President Bill Clinton as his friends, and, according to court papers,
Britain’s Prince Andrew. None of those people was mentioned in the indictment
laying out the charges against Epstein.
Epstein
had been confined to the correctional center while he appealed a district
judge's refusal to let him live under 24-hour guard in his opulent townhouse on
Manhattan's Upper East Side.
The
charges against Epstein were announced more than a decade after he pleaded
guilty in Florida to state prostitution charges after a deal with prosecutors
that has been widely criticized as too lenient.
Before
the Bureau of Prisons statement, Aja Davis, a spokeswomen for the New York City
Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, said she could not say how Epstein died
before her office examined the body.
Epstein's
death came a day after the unsealing of a court filing in which a woman who
accused Epstein of keeping her as a sex slave said one of the financier's
associates had instructed her to have sex with at least a half-dozen prominent
men.
The
claim by Virginia Giuffre came in a deposition that was included in about 2,000
pages of documents related to her defamation lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell,
the associate whom Giuffre said helped Epstein procure girls for sex.
Lawyers
for Maxwell did not respond to several phone and email requests for comment.
In
another court filing on July 25, the government said it was pursuing an
"ongoing investigation of uncharged individuals" in connection with
the sex-trafficking case against Epstein.
That
investigation, in the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan, will continue despite
Epstein's death, a source familiar with the matter said.