This story has been updated.
Moments after billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was announced dead in what law enforcement sources described as an apparent suicide in his New York City jail cell, conspiracy theories about his death erupted. By Saturday evening, President Donald Trump was retweeting the theories.
Epstein, 66, was being held on child sex-trafficking charges for his role in allegedly procuring underage girls for wealthy men. He had been on suicide watch in the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan after a previous suicide attempt last month, raising questions about how he could have managed to kill himself while imprisoned.
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While some pointed to a history of negligence in New York City jails (though MCC is a federal facility), others were quick to claim various Epstein associates had done him in. On Saturday evening, Trump retweeted some of the conspiratorial claims, without evidence.
“Died of SUICIDE on 24/7 SUICIDE WATCH ?” read a tweet Trump retweeted. “Yeah right! How does that happen #JefferyEpstein had information on Bill Clinton & now he’s dead I see #TrumpBodyCount trending but we know who did this! RT if you’re not Surprised #EpsteinSuicide #ClintonBodyCount #ClintonCrimeFamily”
Epstein was not on suicide watch at the time of his death, jail authorities announced earlier Saturday.
Trump also retweeted a post accusing Former President Bill Clinton of misconduct. “BREAKING: Documents were unsealed yesterday revealing that top Democrats, including Bill Clinton, took private trips to Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘pedophilia island.’”
It’s not surprising that Epstein’s death would be such rich fodder for conspiracy theories; he had documented connections with the wealthy and powerful on both sides of the political aisle. Court filings by his accusers allege a plot in which Epstein and his associates recruited underage girls and forced them to have sex with Epstein’s associates. Reports of the alleged crime ring fed into other, more speculative theories, including those with a strong partisan bias that only implicate Epstein associates from one side of the political spectrum.
Questions over Epstein’s suicide watch fanned those flames on Saturday. Epstein had reportedly recently left suicide watch when he died on Saturday, raising questions about why he was not being monitored.
“Hillary’d!!” Lynne Patton, a Trump-appointed head of public housing in New York and New Jersey posted on Instagram shortly after Epstein was reported dead. “P.S. Let me know when I’m supposed to feel badly about this…”
Patton concluded the post with a hashtag alluding to a right-wing conspiracy theory that falsely claims the Clinton family orchestrated the death of a former deputy White House Counsel. (Patton is a former Trump family event planner, who’s falsely implied that she attended Yale.)
FOX Business host Lou Dobbs tweeted a similar version of the theory claiming that Epstein “Epstein should have been at least on Arkanside Watch,” a mashup of “suicide” and Bill Clinton’s home state of Arkansas.
Patton and Dobbs were far from the only social media user to implicate the Clintons in Epstein’s death. On Saturday morning, “Another Clinton,” “#ClintonBodyCount,” and “#ClintonCrimeFamily” trended on Twitter, alongside “‘Suicide’” (in quotation marks) and “Prince Andrew.”
Prince Andrew was named in court documents unsealed Friday from an alleged Epstein victim who claimed he trafficked her to wealthy men including Prince Andrew, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, Wall Street billionaire Glenn Dubin, and foreign heads of state. (The men deny these allegations.)
Former President Bill Clinton was not named, although he has been linked to Epstein. Clinton took trips on Epstein’s plane in 2002 and 2003, and Epstein visited the Clinton White House, The Daily Beast previously reported.
The conspiratorial posts were not limited to the right. Epstein is also a former Trump associate, and was filmed discussing women with Trump at a party. The woman who accused Epstein of trafficking her at age 16 said she had been working at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort when Epstein recruited her.
Claire McCaskill, a former Democratic senator from Missouri appeared to imply foul play with a Saturday morning tweet.
“Something stinks to high heaven,” McCaskill wrote. “How does someone on suicide watch hang himself with no intervention? Impossible. Unless.....”
(Followers replied that Trump was involved in the death.)
Joe Scarborough, an MSNBC host and former Republican congressman (now a registered independent) appeared to blame Russian interference for the death.“A guy who had information that would have destroyed rich and powerful men’s lives ends up dead in his jail cell. How predictably...Russian,” Scarborough tweeted. “He reportedly tried to kill himself two weeks ago. And is allowed to finish the job now? Bullshit.”
Epstein’s death is under investigation, law enforcement officials told The Daily Beast on Saturday.
Epstein’s death is under investigation, law enforcement officials told The Daily Beast on Saturday.
As that investigation proceeds, Twitter personality Seth Abramson wrote that:
“1) Black is pals with Kushner; Kushner is pals with MBS.
2) Kushner gave MBS valuable classified intel in October 2017.
3) Black made suspicious, possibly Saudi-linked loans to Kushner.
4) Black worked with Epstein, who may have been an MBS money manager.”
(Abramson also riffed on a different theory: “Understand that the reason Russian bots are all over the Internet making wild claims about a Clinton connection to the Epstein suicide is because key people in the United States and abroad know the Trump connection to Epstein is the one that matters, and is the real story here.”)
Followers of the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory suggested that Epstein faked his death. Believers in the theory circulated a picture of a corpse and questioned whether it looked like Epstein.
