The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is examining two prison video cameras that reportedly malfunctioned outside the cell of multimillionaire sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein during the time of his death, according to a report published by Reuters late Wednesday.
The report said that the two cameras “were within view of the Manhattan jail cell where he was found dead August 10” and had been sent to the FBI’s forensic crime lab in Quantico, Virginia.
Reuters said the new details about the FBI analysis of the cameras were provided by an unnamed law enforcement source.
The Washington Post reported on Monday that at least one camera near Epstein’s cell “had footage that was unusable” but did not provide details about the nature of the failure or what, if any, footage from other cameras was usable.
As with the Post report, the US Justice Department, the FBI and the Federal Bureau of Prisons either refused or did not respond to requests from Reuters for comment on the latest revelation.
With each passing day, new information is coming to light which undermines the prison authorities’ assertion and the determination of the New York Medical Examiner that Epstein, who was awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges, had committed suicide in his jail cell by hanging himself.
On Tuesday, Jeffrey Epstein’s attorney Reid Weingarten told Judge Richard Berman in US District Court in Manhattan that the injuries suffered by his client were “far more consistent with assault” than suicide. Another Epstein lawyer, Martin Weinberg, told the judge that there were “significant doubts” and that the legal team was “skeptical of the certitude” of the finding of suicide by the medical examiner.
In the course of the hearing, where prosecutors were seeking the dismissal of the charges against Epstein, federal prosecutor Maurene Comey also told the judge that the defendant’s death was already the subject of “an ongoing and active grand jury investigation.”
There are important and well-known reasons to conclude that Epstein was murdered, chief among them the possibility that he was preparing a defense that would have “spilled the beans” on other individuals who participated in his criminal activities in exchange for a lesser sentence.
Epstein, who was an investment consultant with connections among the Wall Street and New York City elite, had business and personal relationships with significant figures in both the Democratic and Republican parties in the US as well as in countries around the world.
As has been pointed out by the World Socialist Web Site, there is significance to the fact that the corporate media—led by the New York Times—has rushed to push the conclusion that Epstein simply committed suicide and dismiss anyone who would question it as a “conspiracy theorist.”