Justice Dept. reassigns warden of federal jail where Jeffrey Epstein died puts two staffers on leave
Last edited Tue Aug 13, 2019, 03:20 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: Washington Post
The warden at the federal detention center where Jeffrey Epstein died of an apparent suicide has been reassigned, and two staffers tasked with monitoring his unit have been placed on leave, the Justice Department said Tuesday. The move comes a day after Attorney General William P. Barr decried what he called a “failure” by officials at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan to secure the multimillionaire sex offender. In leveling his criticism, Barr cited unspecified “irregularities” at the facility.
On Tuesday, Barr “directed the Bureau of Prisons to temporarily assign” warden Lamine N’Diaye to a regional office, pending the outcome of internal investigations into Epstein’s death, the Justice Department said in a statement. Two staffers who were assigned to Epstein’s unit at the time of his death were placed on administrative leave, the department said. Epstein was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges when he died. Results of his autopsy are pending.
He was being held in a special housing unit of the MCC and should have been checked on by the staff every 30 minutes. But correctional officers had not checked on Epstein for “several” hours before he was found around 6:30 a.m. Saturday when the staff were handing out breakfast to inmates, a person familiar with the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. “Additional actions may be taken as the circumstances warrant,” the department’s statement says.
Epstein, 66, was found hanging in his cell, according to officials familiar with the matter. The facility is run by the Bureau of Prisons, which is part of the Justice Department and falls under Barr’s authority. The FBI and the Justice Department’s inspector general have been aggressively investigating Epstein’s death, focusing on apparent breakdowns of policy at the facility in the hours before staffers discovered him unresponsive.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/justice-dept-reassigns-warden-of-jail-where-epstein-died-puts-two-staffers-on-leave/2019/08/13/7da62ff2-bdf7-11e9-a5c6-1e74f7ec4a93_story.html
Original article -
By Washington Post Staff
August 13 at 2:38 PM
The department announced Tuesday that Attorney General William P. Barr had directed the Bureau of Prisons to temporarily assign the warden to a regional office while Epstein’s death is investigated. The Bureau of Prisons also put on leave two staffers at the federal detention center who were assigned to Epstein’s unit.
This is a developing story. It will be updated.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2019/08/13/justice-dept-reassigns-warden-of-federal-jail-where-jeffrey-epstein-died-puts-two-staffers-on-leave-amid-investigations/
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