NEW YORK (AP) - The Latest on the death of Jeffrey Epstein (all times local):
9:20 p.m.
A person familiar with operations at the federal jail where Jeffrey Epstein killed himself says one of the two people guarding him the night he died wasn’t a correctional officer.
The person wasn’t authorized to disclose information about the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The person said Epstein hanged himself with a bedsheet, days after being taken off a suicide watch.
Federal prisons facing shortages of fully trained guards have resorted to having other types of support staff fill in for correctional officers, including clerical workers and teachers.
Jail policy called for guards to check Epstein every 30 minutes, but investigators have learned those checks weren’t done for several hours in the hours before he was discovered Saturday.
That’s according to a second person who was not authorized to discuss the matter and also spoke on condition of anonymity.
- By Michael R. Sisak and Michael Balsamo.
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6:45 p.m.
The House Judiciary Committee is demanding answers from the Bureau of Prisons after wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in a New York jail while awaiting sex trafficking charges.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler and the top Republican on the panel, Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, wrote the bureau’s acting director on Monday with several questions about the conditions in the prison before Epstein took his own life. The committee asked Hugh Hurwitz for details on the bureau’s suicide prevention program, the circumstances of Epstein’s confinement and details about specific employees who were working that night.
Epstein was found unresponsive in his cell Saturday morning. Nadler and Collins wrote that they agree with Attorney General William Barr that there are “serious questions” about Epstein’s death.
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1:45 p.m.
Accusers of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein say his death should scrap the non-prosecution agreement he negotiated with Florida federal prosecutors over a decade ago.
The court filing Monday came in a long-running lawsuit against the U.S. government by women who claim they were not consulted about the 2008 plea deal as required by the federal Crime Victim’s Rights Act.
That agreement also gave immunity to potential co-conspirators of Epstein. The accusers’ lawyers say that should be thrown out now that Epstein is dead.
Epstein died Saturday in what prison officials said was an apparent suicide. He was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Epstein was allowed to plead guilty to lesser Florida state prostitution-related charges, serving 13 months in jail. He also had to pay restitution to dozens of victims and register as a sex offender.
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11:30 a.m.
Attorney General William Barr says the Justice Department has already found “serious irregularities” at the federal jail where Jeffrey Epstein took his own life over the weekend.
Barr said Monday he was angry to learn that staffers at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York had “failed to adequately secure this prisoner.”
Epstein died Saturday in what prison officials said was an apparent suicide. He was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Barr did not provide specific details but said investigations by the FBI and the Justice Department inspectors general are continuing. He was speaking at a police conference in New Orleans.
Barr also issued a stern warning, saying the case was far from over. He said anyone who may have conspired with Epstein “should not rest easy.”
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11:10 a.m.
Paris prosecutor office said judicial officials are currently checking whether an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s case must be open on the French territory.
Some “elements” submitted to magistrates are being analyzed, the Paris prosecutor office said.
France’s government wants prosecutors to open an investigation into Epstein’s links to France following his apparent suicide.
A French NGO defending children rights, Innocence Endangered, said France is concerned since several French citizen appear in the U.S. case and some alleged victims are French, in a letter addressed to Paris prosecutors published Monday by French magazine L’Obs.
U.S. authorities say Epstein had a residence in Paris and used a fake Austrian passport to travel to France in the 1980s.
He was accused of sexually abusing underage girls for years and charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy. He pleaded not guilty.
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6:25 a.m.
France’s government wants prosecutors to open an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s links to France following his death in a Manhattan jail cell.
The secretaries of state for women’s rights and protecting children said in a statement Monday that it is “fundamental” to launch an investigation in France so that his death “doesn’t deprive the victims of the justice they deserve” and to protect other girls from “this kind of predator.”
U.S. authorities say Epstein had a residence in Paris and used a fake Austrian passport to travel to France in the 1980s. The French statement didn’t elaborate on other links to France.
The high-flying U.S. financier was accused of sexually abusing underage girls for years and charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy. He pleaded not guilty.
The Paris prosecutor’s office did not immediately comment.
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12:40 a.m.
The details of how Jeffrey Epstein died in his Manhattan jail cell over the weekend have yet to be released, but medical officials have performed an autopsy on the high-profile inmate accused of sexually abusing underage girls and paying them hundreds of dollars in cash for massages.
Epstein’s abrupt death Saturday cut short a criminal prosecution that could have pulled back the curtain on the inner workings of a high-flying financier with connections to celebrities and presidents, though prosecutors have vowed to continue investigating.
Epstein, 66, had been denied bail and faced up to 45 years behind bars on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges unsealed last month.
He had pleaded not guilty and was awaiting trial.
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