Cell ‘not checked’
A person familiar with the probe of Jeffrey Epstein’s death at a federal jail says guards are suspected of falsifying log entries to show they were checking on inmates in his unit every half hour, when they actually weren’t. Epstein is believed to have killed himself on Sunday at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York, where he was awaiting trial in a sex trafficking case. Surveillance video reviewed after the death showed guards never made some of the checks noted in the log, according to the person familiar with the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Jeffrey Epstein boasted about having compromising material on “an astonishing number” of rich and famous people, it has been claimed, while his British confidante, Ghislaine Maxwell, reportedly told friends she and Epstein were videotaping everyone who visited Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean.
The claims were made as expectation mounts that Maxwell, 57, could be sought by New York prosecutors for questioning as a potential witness, as they continue their inquiry into Epstein’s activities.
Epstein, the Brooklyn-born financier, was found dead in his prison cell on Sunday in what is believed to be a suicide.
He was awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking of minors.
Numerous Epstein accusers have claimed that Maxwell served as Epstein’s recruiter and enabler.
Geoffrey Berman, US attorney for the Southern District of New York, confirmed on Sunday that “our investigation of the conduct charged in the indictment — which included a conspiracy count — remains ongoing”.
William Barr, the US Attorney General, went further, insisting on Tuesday that “any co-conspirators should not rest easy”.
On Tuesday, the FBI raided Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands, Little St James off the coast of St Thomas.
Epstein bought it for US$7.95 million ($12.3m) in 1998.
Epstein was known to use the island as a gathering place for his guests. Bill Clinton was reported as having visited although he has denied ever setting foot on the island.
A friend of Maxwell told Vanity Fair yesterday that Maxwell said she and Epstein filmed the guests on the island “as an insurance policy, as blackmail”.
James Stewart, a business correspondent for the New York Times, yesterday reported details of a strange meeting with Epstein in August last year, conducted off the record amid rumours that Epstein was advising Elon Musk on Tesla.
“The overriding impression I took away from our roughly 90-minute conversation was that Mr Epstein knew an astonishing number of rich, famous and powerful people, and had photos to prove it,” wrote Stewart.
“He also claimed to know a great deal about these people, some of it potentially damaging or embarrassing, including details about their supposed sexual proclivities and recreational drug use.”