Jeffrey Epstein hanged himself in his jail cell with an orange noose he fashioned from "a sheet or a shirt," according to a new report issued Tuesday.
The Justice Department's Inspector General report details the failures that occurred beginning one month before the disgraced financier's death in Bureau of Prisons custody.
When officers discovered Epstein unresponsive in his cell on Aug. 10, 2019, Officer Michael Thomas, who was charged criminally in the case, said, "Breathe, Epstein, Breathe," according to the report.
When Thomas saw Epstein dangling from the bed, he said, "We're going to be in a lot of trouble," according to the report.
When Epstein's room was searched after his death, investigators found extra bedsheets, another mattress and a noose, according to the report.
Epstein died by hanging at Manhattan's Metropolitan Correctional Center while he was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
On Aug. 10, the Inspector General said Epstein was in his cell at 8 p.m. Officials said he made an unrecorded call on a landline that was not monitored by prison communications. Epstein told the officers he was calling his mother, according to the report, but she had died before that date. The report said staffers should have been monitoring this call made by Epstein.
After 10:40 p.m., Epstein was not checked on nor was he monitored until officers discovered him hanging from his cell, according to the report.
Epstein first attempted suicide in custody on July 23, 2019, and the Inspector General report said Bureau of Prisons employees should have been put on alert then.
On July 30, the Inspector General said an email was sent to 70 staffers of the prison physiological unit instructing that Epstein was to be housed with a cellmate. But the Inspector General said that warning went unheeded by Bureau of Prisons staff.
The report is coupled with nearly 4,000 pages of documents obtained by reporters earlier this month under a Freedom of Information Act request.
The documents show that toward the end of his life, Epstein sat alone in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, repeatedly calling himself a coward out loud.
Thomas and his partner were charged with doctoring the log books to make it seem like they completed their rounds when they had not, according to officials. Both pleaded guilty.
Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate of Epstein, was convicted in December 2021 of conspiring with Epstein to recruit, groom and abuse minors and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.