Death of Jeffrey Epstein

On August 10, 2019, Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier and a child sex offender, was found unresponsive in his jail cell at 6:30 a , at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, hanging off the side of his cell's bed, where he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. After prison guards reportedly performed CPR, he was transported in cardiac arrest to the New York Downtown Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:39 am. The New York City medical examiner and the Justice Department Inspector General ruled that Epstein's death was a suicide by hanging. Epstein's lawyers challenged the medical examiner's conclusion and opened their own investigation, hiring pathologist Michael Baden. After initially expressing suspicion, Attorney General William Barr described Epstein's death as "a perfect storm of screw-ups". Both the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice's Inspector General conducted investigations into the circumstances of his death. The guards on duty were later charged with multiple counts of record falsification. Many public figures accused the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) of negligence; several lawmakers called for reforms to the federal prison system. In response, Barr removed the director of the FBOP. As a result of Epstein's death, all charges against him were dismissed, and ongoing sex-trafficking investigations shifted attention to his alleged associates, notably Ghislaine Maxwell, who was arrested and indicted in July 2020 and convicted on five sex trafficking-related counts on December 29, 2021. Another associate, Jean-Luc Brunel, was arrested by French authorities in 2020 and later died by suicide. Due to jail procedures on the night of Epstein's death, and his proximity to high profile figures, his death generated speculation and conspiracy theories about the possibility that he was murdered. Other theories claimed his death was staged. In November 2019, the contested nature of his death spawned the "Epstein didn't kill himself" meme. Public opinion polls suggest that only a minority of Americans believe that Epstein died by suicide; one such poll saw 16% of respondents saying they believed Epstein died by suicide, 45% believing he was murdered, and 39% being unsure.