The Epstein Files: How the Bureau of Prisons managed media perceptions around billionaire’s death
Documents released to RT investigative unit The Detail under Freedom of Information laws have revealed how, in the days following the mysterious death of Jeffrey Epstein, US Bureau of Prison officials struggled to get their story straight on his alleged suicide. Simultaneously, they were using the opportunity to wage a PR war, flooding the media with potentially false narratives about his death, many of which persist to this day.
Early on the morning of August 10, 2019, Metropolitan Correctional Center guards found Epstein unresponsive in his jail cell, where he was awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges. He was then rushed to hospital, before being pronounced dead at 6:39 am.
The declassified records analyzed by The Detail show that, for reasons unclear, it wasn’t until almost an hour-and-a-half later that BoP officials informed the Department of Justice (DOJ) that Epstein had been taken to hospital after another apparent suicide attempt. An internal email, from 7:52am, notes receipt of the grave news – “no other information was provided” though, and the BoP pledged to “update us as more info becomes available.” Of course, by this time he was long dead.