Those who knew about Epstein include not just low-level correctional officers, but supervisors and managers, according to the Washington Post, citing people familiar with the matter.
Investigators suspect that at least some of these individuals also knew Epstein had been left alone in a cell before he died, and they are working to determine the extent of such knowledge, these people said, cautioning that the apparent disregard for the instruction does not necessarily mean there was criminal conduct, but could simply be bureaucratic incompetence within the organization.
“It’s perplexing,” Robert Hood, a former warden at the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colo, told the Washington Post. “If people were given instructions that Epstein should not be left alone, I don’t understand how they were not followed.”
Hood, according to the Post, once served as the Bureau of Prisons’ chief of internal affairs, and said it was disconcerting that officials might have thought they were putting Epstein on a less-intensive form of suicide watch.
Epstein was a key defendant in a high-profile case of paedophilia and an underage sex trafficking scheme. The late 66-year-old financier was also close with numerous famous personalities and politicians. This fact spurred numerous conspiracy theories regarding Epstein's demise, suggesting that it could have been more than just a suicide, since his testimony could have allegedly hurt powerful people who may have used the accused sex trafficker's services.
These theories were further fuelled by numerous media reports suggesting that the New York prison was heavily understaffed and that the guards were not checking up on Epstein as often as they should have been according to the rules. The financier’s apparent suicide comes weeks after making another such attempt, something that led to him being put on suicide watch. However, media reports suggest that the measure was lifted six days after being imposed.
