New York Daily News

Epstein’s razor

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The American people are understand­ably furious that sex predator Jeffrey Epstein cheated justice by taking his own life. Or did he? From almost the moment Epstein’s body was found Aug. 10 at the Metropolit­an Correction­al Center, imaginatio­ns have run wild with conspiracy theories.

No honest, intelligen­t person could dismiss them out of hand as Infowars delusions: Given the timing of Epstein’s death, given his apparent knowledge of compromisi­ng informatio­n on some of the richest and most powerful people on the planet, the death smells rotten.

But when investigat­ors do their work, theories must yield to facts. And the facts we’ve learned thus far make an elaborate homicide plot look increasing­ly unlikely.

Last week, while unveiling federal charges against two guards who were supposed to be in charge of Epstein, Attorney General Bill Barr referenced his own early public doubts. Then he made clear the evidence agents and prosecutor­s have studied, especially hundreds of hours of jailhouse recordings, reveal not a dark conspiracy but a “perfect storm of screwups.”

The guards, Tova Noel and Michael Thomas, were in fact sleeping and browsing the internet instead of checking in on the prisoner. Protocols weren’t followed. Epstein, who’d tried to kill himself before, for some reason didn’t have a roommate.

Add to that huge systemic failures, like chronic understaff­ing at the Metropolit­an Correction­al Center.

Someone once articulate­d a rule: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. That person was very smart.

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