footage, the personnel on the backs of their clothing you can see nypd as well as the fbi. let me switch gears for a moment, tom, and ask you about and this is something pete williams brought up in his answers about the irregularities that may have taken place inside the jail where jeffrey epstein was found dead. what have you learned about any irregularities there? . well, the reporting from both pete and our colleague jonathan dietz is that it appears there were several hours that passed before he was checked up upon. he was supposed to be checked up upon every 30 minutes. so basically it may not be 30 minutes every time. they don t want to let the people they re guarding know when they re coming around. basically within 30 minutes, everybody is supposed to be checked up upon. and that did not happen in the special housing unit. so that is irregularity number one. we are hearing from folks that
there is no rush to get this done. there s no rush to get a report out as much as we may want answers, as much as a lot of people want answers as to how this could happen. i think this could be more time before we hear from the medical examiner. it may be a hypothetical. there may be other abrasions or markings on his body. they may want to match it up to other things that may or may not have happened where he was held pending trial. it s not surprising the m.e. wants more time to come out with a determination. it is presumed by everybody in law enforcement that we have spoken with, myself and my colleague jonathan dietz, that it is an apparent suicide and presumed that suicide is what happened here as far as epstein s death. katie, you have been reporting that the protocol that was set in place for this prison generally was not followed with epstein. walk us through some of the things you have learned.
the details. jonathan, start from the beginning and talk about the discovery this morning that epstein was dead. yes, well, the bureau of prisons has now put out an official statement confirming his death. they say it happened around 6:30 this morning, that epstein was found in his cell. numerous sources, five sources now telling us it was death by hanging, that s the apparent cause, and that ems was called. he was transported from the mcc around 6:30 this morning to a downtown hospital where about an hour later, around 7:30, he was producedceenounced dead. the fbi is being called in to investigate. the fbi normally does not investigate suicides at bureau of prison facilities, but a senior official tells us as an
network, if you will, as to what did they know and when did they know it and what steps did they take in connection with his apparent abuse of underage girls. jonathan, talk a little bit. many, many questions arising from this, obviously, with the fact the fbi is now looking into this. but you have somebody like a jeffrey epstein, somebody very high profile the day after these documents were unsealed. wouldn t you think there would be more checks on him, especially after being placed on suicide watch even though he may have been taken off, and especially taking a look at the investigation inside there from jail authorities of whether the first time around if he harmed himself, if he tried to, if it was fake that he tried to get transferred or if somebody else did? that was the question the first time around, was this a real suicide attempt or was it just an attempt to get transferred? we were told all along jeffrey epstein was having a very difficult time adjusting to life
were they every hour? were they every three hours? again, often when someone is on suicide watch, bureau officials can put him with a roommate to help keep an eye on him, but in the previous ichncident, that w another reason why this sex offender was put in isolation in his own cell, not with another roommate. again, these are questions that it s going to take some time to get answers to. we don t know how often, how regularly he was being checked on. more and more questions and the more we learn as well. jonathan dietz, thank you so much. appreciate your reporting. we re going to stephanie gosk with more on these court documents released yesterday. really disturbing information in those documents and more high-profile people implicated. what was in the documents and the takeaways from it?