financier and registered sex offender jeffrey epstein. right now officials say the signs point to suicide bullet the medical examiner also says more time is needed before an official cause can be determined. and if that determination is officially suicide how was the most high profile prisoner in america able to do it in a jail that s been called the guantanamo of new york? of course epstein faced sex trafficking charges and hundreds of documents released just before his death named some powerful and wealthy people. today attorney general william barr made it clear the investigation into epstein s alleged crimes are far from over. we will get to bottom of what happened and there will be accountability. but let me assure you that this case will continue on against anyone who is complicit with epstein. any coconspirators should not rest easy. the victims deserve justice, and
was this a matter of incompetent, indifference or more nefarious. polo points out, he was perhaps the most high profile prisoner in america right now. is there any reason that someone with his story in terms of what has even happened since he s been in the jail, the fact that he apparently attempt suicide recently, previously, that he would be left alone for this period of time? he was in a special housing unit. they re cells that are 8 to 9 feet tall. you can t hook anything over the top of it. the beds are bolted on the floor and paper thin sheets and blankets. and for them not to have checked in on him in that situation when he had already tried to commit suicide. july 23rd they found him almost unresponse and marks on his death. it had to be a ph.d., a psychiatrist or psychologist on staff who take a look at this
we still want to hear from you. on top of that he said that any investigation into that conspiracy count you mentioned, stephanie, will go on as well. this is not over so to speak with regards to epstein and the criminal investigation. all right. thank you, tom winter. we have to go a lot further into this. i want to bring in nbc s chief legal correspondent and anchor of course of the beat here on msnbc every day at 6:00 p.m. the finance editor for the new york times has been looking at epstein s financial ties and they have been crushing it on unbelievable reporting around how specifically epstein made so much money. and the former federal prosecutor for the southern and eastern districts of new york is with us. to you first. how big of a deal is this? epstein may be the most high profile prisoner at least in the news cycle right now. absolutely. probably after el chappo, the second most important in all of u.s. custody now dead. this is a, are you kidding me, moment for bill
watch after being found passed out in his own jail cell july 23rd with marks on his neck but nbc news has learned he was taken off suicide watch following a psychiatric evaluation less than a week later. in addition, epstein was found alone and questions are raised about why he didn t have a cell mate like he previously did. while the guards were supposed to be checking on epstein every 30 minutes, officials are now investigating to see if that actually happened. attorney general bill barr over the weekend said he is, quote, appalled at epstein s death and said both the fbi and the justice department will investigate. epstein had been waiting trial on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges and was facing up to 45 years behind bars. tom winter has been digging into all of this for us and is nbc s correspondent for investigations. tom, we should point out this wasn t just about jeff re-epstein. one of the reasons he was such a high profile prisoner is the
great point, and i ve had clients myself incarcerated there. this is one of the most important leading federal incarceration place in new york city for high profile people, el chapo was there for a long time. a lot of the terrorist cases that have been prosecuted in recent years, those terrorists have been held at mcc. what s especially surprising is when you have an individual who has made a suicide attempt, he is supposed to be placed on 24-hour suicide watch because he may try to kill himself again, and the reports we have now of course are that he hung himself this morning. that was exactly what he was alleged to have tried to do a couple of weeks ago, so he should have been under 24-hour guard, and i would expect that heads will roll in the federal prison system for this lax in proper security for a particularly high profile