The latest tranche of Epstein files released by the Justice Department include a 2019 prison report after a “possible suicide attempt” by the disgraced financier, including grim photos taken less than three weeks before he successfully ended his life in a Manhattan jail cell.
The July 10, 2019 report from Metropolitan Correctional Center describes prison staffers finding Epstein in his cell “lying in the fetal position” around 1:27 a.m. with an orange-colored “homemade fashioned noose” around his neck.
The officer who responded to the assistance call reported he found Epstein dressed in a t-shirt and boxers “breathing heavily” and snoring. He unsuccessfully attempted to roust Epstein, at which point he was cuffed and put on a stretcher to be removed from his cell.
“As inmate Epstein was being placed on the stretcher by responding staff, he would open his eyes and observe staff. When staff made eye contact with him, he would hurriedly shut his eyes,” the officer wrote.
Epstein was then dressed in a suicide smock and placed on suicide watch. The officer reported that the disgraced financier claimed his cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, was harassing him and had attempted to kill him, though he later told officers he didn’t know what had happened to him.
In a subsequent interview with officers on July 31, Epstein claimed he hadn’t gotten any sleep in approximately 20 days and was “extremely tired” the night he was found on the floor.
A series of photographs accompanying the report show Epstein wearing a blue suicide smock with his hair a disheveled mess. In one picture he’s presenting his hands, which appear swollen and red, while another shows Epstein’s bare feet on a dingy prison floor.
A final photo shows Epstein laying on his back with his eyes closed on what appears to be a stretcher or medical table.
A medical report following the incident described him as having “an [sic] circular line of erythema at the base of his neck. Reaching 2/3 of the neck circumference, 2 inches wide, sparing the back of the neck.”
It goes on to note, “No inflammation, no deformities, no hematomas, no lacerations, no tenderness. Patient moving his neck without any restriction. Denies having any pain or discomfort. Denies and respiratory problem.”
The latest batch of Epstein files, which includes some 30,000 documents so far, was put out by the Justice Department Dec. 19 after Congress passed a bipartisan bill in November ordering their release within 30 days.
Epstein died after a successful suicide attempt less than three weeks later on Aug. 10, 2019.
