The federal prison guards tasked with watching Jeffrey Epstein at the time of the billionaire’s death are about to face the consequences for their alleged negligence. The Washington Post and Associated Press reported Monday that federal prosecutors in New York are on the verge of filing criminal charges against the two Bureau of Prisons workers, and could do so as early as Tuesday. The charges are expected to focus on the workers’ alleged falsification of records, as they reportedly attempted to cover up their failure to check on Epstein at regular intervals.
The prison workers, who have not yet been publicly named, came under heavy scrutiny in the wake of Epstein’s apparent suicide, as the billionaire’s August 10 death appeared to be enabled by a widespread failing of the protocols designed to keep such an incident from happening. Epstein was placed on suicide watch after a suspected suicide attempt on July 23, but the measures were lifted just six days later. On the night of his death, Epstein was alone in his cell, which went against the conditions for him being taken off suicide watch. Instead of checking on Epstein every 30 minutes as required, the New York Times reported in August, the two guards left Epstein completely unsupervised for three hours—reportedly because they fell asleep. The two staffers were placed on administrative leave after Epstein’s death, and federal prosecutors offered them a plea deal before moving to file charges, which the Associated Press reports they rejected.
The failures exposed by Epstein’s death appear to be indicative of broader systemic issues within the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, where Epstein was being held, as well as the prison system at large. MCC was reportedly facing broad issues of staffing shortages and overworked guards, and both guards watching Epstein were working on overtime. The practice of falsifying records that has now gotten the workers in trouble, the Associated Press notes, is also widespread throughout the federal prison system. In addition to the guards placed on administrative leave, MCC’s warden was also temporarily reassigned in the wake of Epstein’s death, and U.S. Attorney General William Barr removed the then-acting director at the Bureau of Prisons, Hugh Hurwitz, from his position. Epstein’s death “demonstrates severe miscarriages of or deficiencies in inmate protocol and has allowed the deceased to ultimately evade facing justice,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler and Ranking Member Doug Collins wrote in an August letter to Hurwitz demanding answers about Epstein’s death. “The competency and rigor of our criminal justice system has been marred by this apparent oversight.”
Of course, the renewed scrutiny of the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s apparent suicide is likely to stoke the conspiracy theories surrounding the billionaire’s death, which have only continued to gain steam in the months since Epstein was found dead. While the New York City medical examiner has concluded that Epstein’s death was, in fact, by suicide, rumors still continue to swirl that there were more nefarious forces at work, and Epstein’s defense team has said they have “significant doubts regarding the conclusion of suicide.” The popular conspiracy theory got another push on Thursday from Epstein’s brother Mark Epstein, who said in an interview with the Miami Herald that the circumstances of his brother’s death are “all very suspicious, too much to be a coincidence.” Mark Epstein—who previously hired a pathologist that raised doubts on Fox & Friends about Jeffrey’s suicide—pointed to the fact that his brother had a bail hearing scheduled two days after his death. “I could see if he got a life sentence, I could then see him taking himself out, but he had a bail hearing coming up,” Mark Epstein told the Herald. “Jeffrey knew a lot of stuff about a lot of people.”
More Great Stories From Vanity Fair
— The strangely familiar nightmare of impeaching Trump
— Clues to the identity of Anonymous, who wrote the explosive White House op-ed
— Former Fox News staffers demand to be released from their NDAs
— Why crypto-crooks have their sights set on Iceland
— A sustained booing reveals Trump’s true face
— From the archive: A portrait of Kim Jong Un, part man, part myth
Looking for more? Sign up for our daily Hive newsletter and never miss a story.