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The OIG Report Into Jeffrey Epstein's Death: Background (Chapter 2 Part 1) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

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  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the Epstein Chronicles.
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  In this episode, we're going to continue with the Inspector
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  General's report into Jeffrey Epstein's death and the circumstances that
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  led up to it. Chapter two Background, Part one, Significant
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  Entities and Individuals. Jeffrey Epstein was born in nineteen fifty three,
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  and prior to his arrest, worked at various jobs in
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  the financial industry and ultimately developed considerable wealth. On July second,
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  twenty nineteen, a federal grand jury of the US District
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  Court for the Southern District of New York returned an
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  indictment that charged Epstein with engaging in sex trafficking and
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  a sex trafficking conspiracy in violation of eighteen US Code
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  three seventy one fifteen ninety one a B two and two.
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  These charges were based on allegations that between two thousand
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  and two and two thousand and five, Epstein paid girls
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  as young as fourteen years old hundreds of dollars in
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  cash each for engaging in sex acts with him at
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  his Florida and New York residences. The indictment further alleged
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  that Epstein also paid each of these minor victims hundreds
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  of dollars in cash to recruit other girls to engage
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  in sex acts with Epstein. On July sixth, twenty nineteen,
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  Epstein was arrested at Teterborough Airport in New Jersey upon
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  his return to the United States from France and was
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  transported to the Federal Bureau of Prisons BOP Metropolitan Correctional Center,
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  located at one fifty Park Row in New York, New York.
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  Following a detention hearing on July fifteenth, twenty nineteen, the
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  court ordered that Epstein be detained pending trial based on
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  the court's finding that he was a dangered to the
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  community and the flight risk. MCC New York is a
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  federal administrative detention facility operated by the BOP that primarily
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  provides pre trial detention services for the U S District
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  courts for the Southern and Eastern districts of New York.
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  The BOP temporarily closed MCC New York in October twenty
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  twenty one due to substandard conditions that are unrelated to
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  this investigation. When it was operational, MCC New York housed
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  approximately seven hundred and fifty inmates at any given time,
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  Prior to its closure, the majority of mcc new York's
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  inmates were individuals with pending criminal charges, as opposed to
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  individuals who had been convicted of offenses and were serving
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  a sentence of imprisonment but whom the court had determined,
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  under applicable law, should remain in custody pending trial, either
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  because they represented danger to the community, a substantial flight risk,
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  or both. Mcc new York has several different housing units.
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  Epstein was initially assigned to mcc new York's general inmate population,
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  but on July seventh, twenty nineteen, he was moved to
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  special housing unit pending reclassification due to the significant increase
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  in media coverage and awareness of his notoriety among the
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  other inmates. The Shoe is a housing unit within mcc
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  new York where inmates are securely separated from the general
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  inmate population and kept blocked in their cells for approximately
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  twenty three hours per day to ensure their own safety
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  as well as the safety of the staff and other inmates.
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  Correctional Officer Toauvin Owell and material handler Michael Thomas began
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  working together in mcc new York Shoe at twelve a m.
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  On August tenth, twenty nineteen. During their shift, they each
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  created and submitted falsified official BOP forms documenting inmate counts,
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  often referred to as count slips, and Noel completed and
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  signed more than seventy five separate entries on an official
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  BOP form documenting thirty minute rounds, often referred to as
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  a round sheet, falsely stating that she and Thomas had
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  conducted such rounds when in fact they had not. On
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  November nineteenth, twenty nineteen, a federal grand jury of the U.
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  S District Court for the Southern District of New York
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  returned an indictment that charged Noel and Thomas with one
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  count each of conspiracy and multiple counts each of falsification
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  of records in violation of eighteen US Code three seventy
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  one one thousand and one A three and two. The
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  indictment alleged that on August ninth, twenty nineteen, Noel fell
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  to conduct the mandatory four PM and ten zen PM
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  counts of inmates in the mcc New York Shoe, and
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  that on August tenth, twenty nineteen, both she and Thomas
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  failed to conduct the mandatory twelve am three am and
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  five am counts and mandatory thirty minute rounds within the
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  mcc New York Shoe. The indictment further alleged that Noel
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  and Thomas created, certified, and submitted false documentation indicating that
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  the counts and rounds had been done as required to
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  conceal their failure to perform their assigned duties. As a result,
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  it appeared from documentation that prisoners in the Shoe, including Epstein,
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  were being regularly monitored, when in fact no COO had
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  checked on Epstein from approximately ten forty pm on August ninth,
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  twenty nineteen, until approximately six thirty am on August tenth,
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  twenty nineteen, when Epstein was found hanged in his cell.
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  On May twenty five, twenty twenty one, the U. S.
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  Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York entered
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  into deferred prosecution agreements with Noel and Thomas. Their respective agreements,
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  which are part of the court record in their case,
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  includes admissions by Noel and Thomas that they falsely certified
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  that they had conducted counts and rounds. The agreements also
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  required them to are truthfully and completely disclose all information
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  related to their activities and employment with the BOP be
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  interviewed by the U. S. Attorney's Office of the Southern
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  District of New York, the FBI, and the OIG complete
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  one hundred hours of community service, refrain from violating the law,
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  and fulfill other conditions related to pre trial supervision and
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  their establishment of good behavior. On December thirteenth, twenty twenty one,
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  after Noel and Thomas successfully fulfilled the terms of their
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  deferred prosecution agreements as determined by the prosecutors, the U S.
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  District Court for the Southern District of New York entered
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  a null prosquay order and dismissed all charges pending against them.
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  Prosecution was declined by the US Attorney's Office for the
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  Southern District of New York for other BP employees assigned
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  to the shoe who also falsely certified inmate count slips
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  and round sheets on the day before and the day
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  of Epstein's death. As discussed in greater detail in Chapter
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  seven of this report, the OIG found that, in addition
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  to Noel and Thomas, many other mcc New York staff
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  members engaged in administrative misconduct, exercised poor judgment, and or
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  failed to adequately perform their assigned duties Part two Methodology.
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  During the course of this investigation, the OIG interviewed fifty
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  four witnesses, several on more than one occasion. The witnesses
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  interviewed included Noel Thomas and other mcc new York staff
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  assigned to the Shoe on August ninth and tenth, twenty nineteen,
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  MCC new York supervisors at the time of Epstein's death,
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  including the warden, associate wardens, captain and lieutenants, medical staff,
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  staff members responsible for mcc new York security camera system,
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  other BOP staff and contractors, and a relative of Epstein
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  who had requested to provide information. The BOP employees and
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  contractors were interviewed, including employees involved in various aspects of
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  the emergency response who worked at mcc new York in
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  the days leading up to the response and following the response,
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  as well as other individuals with information pertinent to our investigation. Additionally,
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  the OIG participated in interviews of fifteen inmates who had
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  been housed at mcc new York during time periods relevant
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  to our investigation, including three who were housed in the
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  l tier of the Shoe on the day Epstein died.
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  Those three El tier inmates were housed in cells opposite
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  Epstein's cell and therefore had a direct line of sight
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  to epstein cell. On the night of August ninth and tenth,
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  the OIG also reached out to one of Epstein's attorneys
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  to discuss the possibility of providing information, but ultimately the
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  attorney declined to be interviewed, citing attorney client privilege. The
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  attorney client privilege survives a client's death and issues related
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  to ongoing litigation involving Epstein's estate. The OIG also collected
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  over one hundred and twenty seven thousand documents, as well
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  as mcc new York video and photographs. Among these were
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  BOP documents including staff rosters, daily logs and reports, in
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  investigative and incident reports, documentation regarding inmate counts and thirty
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  minute rounds, inmate housing assignment documentation, inmate transfer documents, psychology
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  department reports, and medical records relating to Epstein. Epstein's institutional
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  phone call records, mcc new York records on Epstein's visits
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  with his attorneys, electronic communications including text messages and emails
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  of BOP employees, and contractors, mcc new York Security camera
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  surveillance video records from contractors regarding the mcc new York
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  Security Camera System, Service records for mcc new York Security
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  Camera System, mcc new York photographs, including photographs taken of
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  efforts to revive Epstein on the morning of August tenth,
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  twenty nineteen, BOP policies and program statements, mcc new York
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  post orders, and financial records. The OIG also conducted forensic
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  analysis of the computers located in the shoe and BOP
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  cellular telephones. In addition, the OIG reviewed FBI investigative records,
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  including review reports, FD DASH three two, notes from witness
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  interviews and other meetings, and electronic communications. The OIG also
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  reviewed Epstein's autopsy report and interviewed the medical examiner who
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  performed the autopsy on Epstein. All right, folks, so we're
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  going to wrap up part one of chapter two right here,
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  and then the next episode where we're talking about this
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  OIG report, we're going to pick up with Part three,
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  which is applicable law, regulations and BOP policies. All of
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  the information that goes with this episode can be found
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  in the description box.