The investigation into the death of Jeffrey Epstein is likely to hone in on the failure of Bureau of Prison officials who received strict orders not to leave suicidal Epstein alone, which is at least eight staffers, The Washington Post reported.
The failure to follow those instructions might not be criminal, but might be bureaucratic incompetence spanning multiple individuals and ranks with the bureau, investigators told the Post.
"It's perplexing," former Florence, Colorado, Supermax prison warden Robert Hood told the Post. "If people were given instructions that Epstein should not be left alone, I don't understand how they were not followed."
The indicted sex offender financier, 66, was reportedly not monitored as ordered in the final 24 hours before his Aug. 10 death in his Metropolitan Correctional Center cell by hanging from a bedsheet fastened to his bed, which the coroner has ruled a suicide.
"You're either on suicide watch or you're not," Hood told the Post. "If you have any concern at all, you maintain the suicide watch."
Both the FBI and the Department of Justice inspector general are conducting investigations into the circumstances of Epstein's prison-cell death.
"I think I'll soon be in a position to report to Congress and the public the results," attorney general William Barr said, who added "a number of the witnesses were not cooperative – a number of them required having union representatives and lawyers."
While acknowledging "serious irregularities at the center," Barr said he has "seen nothing that undercuts the finding of the medical examiner that this was a suicide."
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