Jeffrey Epstein found injured in his New York City jail cell
NEW YORK — A week after being denied bail, Jeffrey E. Epstein was found unconscious in his cell Tuesday at a federal jail in Manhattan with marks on his neck, and prison officials were treating the incident as a possible suicide attempt, a law enforcement official who had been briefed on the matter said.
Epstein’s injuries were not serious, said the official, who requested his name not be published because he was not authorized to speak on the matter. A second law enforcement official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that Epstein had been discovered in his cell with “bruising around the neck.”
The Bureau of Prisons, in an email Thursday morning, would give no details about the incident, citing “privacy and security reasons.” The bureau said Epstein, 66, was not in a hospital but still at the jail, the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan, where he has been held on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.
Epstein’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Epstein, the financier who is accused of abusing underage girls in the early 2000s, has been housed in a special unit at the jail along with a man facing murder charges named Nicholas Tartaglione, according to Tartaglione’s lawyer, Bruce Barket. Federal prisons use the special units with strict security measures to separate some inmates from the general population.
Tartaglione, a retired police officer, faces federal charges in connection with a 2016 quadruple murder in Chester, N.Y., a small town about 97 kilometres north of Manhattan in the Hudson Valley.
On Wednesday, NBC reported that Tartaglione had been questioned about what happened to Epstein.
In an interview with The Times, Barket said Tartaglione had co-operated with an inquiry into Epstein’s injuries but had not been questioned about whether he had assaulted Epstein or been accused of an attack.
“Any insinuation that he had assaulted Mr. Epstein is a complete and utter fabrication,” Barket said.
Barket added that Epstein and his client “speak regularly and get along well.” Barket said that, on a visit to see Tartaglione on Wednesday morning, his law partner saw Epstein and said he appeared “physically fine” and had “no obvious marks on him.”
Epstein has been detained at the Metropolitan Correctional Center since his arrest.
Last week, Judge Richard M. Berman of U.S. District Court denied bail for Epstein, rejecting his request to be detained at his Upper East Side mansion as he awaited trial.
Epstein’s lawyers had proposed allowing him to post a substantial bond and stay in his mansion guarded by 24-hour security, at his expense. Prosecutors opposed that proposal, arguing Epstein was seeking “special treatment” and trying to build his own private jail — a “gilded cage.”
Epstein was arrested July 6 at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey after a flight from Paris. An indictment unsealed July 8 charged him with sex trafficking and conspiracy. Prosecutors said that between 2002 and 2005, Epstein and his employees paid dozens of underage girls to engage in sex acts with him at his homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Fla.
Epstein faces up to 45 years in prison if he is convicted of sextrafficking and conspiracy charges, and the long sentence, the government argued, gave him a motive to flee. He has pleaded not guilty. For years, Epstein, a hedge fund manager, has socialized with famous and powerful people, including former president Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew of Britain and President Donald Trump.
An investigation into accusations against him was opened in Florida in 2005. But more than a decade ago, prosecutors in Miami made a secret deal that allowed Epstein to avoid federal prosecution. He spent about a year in a Palm Beach jail, where he was allowed to leave six days a week for work.
The plea deal was overseen by R. Alexander Acosta, then a U.S. attorney in Florida. He was widely criticized as letting Epstein off the hook and has since resigned as Trump’s labour secretary.
When Berman denied Epstein’s bail July 18, he said Epstein was a flight risk, citing his “vast wealth,” including private planes and residences abroad.