President Donald Trump said he’s among those who are unsure whether convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in jail.
Trump, during a recent interview with Axios, was asked about it when he wished Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell well.
Maxwell was arrested last month on child sex trafficking charges. She’s now being held in prison in New York City.
Trump said he wasn’t aware of the charges when he told reporters at the White House: “I just wish her well.”
“But I do know that her friend, or boyfriend, was either killed, or committed suicide in jail. She’s now in jail. Yeah, I wish her well, I’d wish you well, I’d wish a lot of people well. Good luck. Let them prove somebody was guilty,” he said in the new interview.
“Her boyfriend died in jail, and people are still trying to figure out how did it happen. Was it suicide, was he killed? And I do wish her well. I’m not looking for anything bad for her. I’m not looking bad for anybody. And they took that, and they made it such a big deal,” he added.
“But all it is is, her boyfriend died, he died in jail. Was he killed, was it suicide? I do, I wish her well.”
New York City Medical Examiner’s Office Barbara Sampson concluded through an autopsy that Epstein, 66, killed himself in prison last year.
“Our investigation concluded that the cause of Mr. Epstein’s death was hanging and the manner of death was suicide,” Sampson said in a statement.
Widespread skepticism of the conclusion was bolstered by Dr. Michael Baden, a forensic pathologist who observed the autopsy on behalf of Epstein’s brother, Mark Epstein.
Baden said Epstein’s injuries were more consistent with homicidal strangulation, pointing out three fractures bones in Epstein’s thyroid.
“Hanging does not cause these broken bones, and homicide does,” Baden told Fox News. “A huge amount of pressure was applied.”
Sampson said she stood by the suicide determination, adding after Baden’s remarks: “The original medical investigation was thorough and complete. There is no reason for a second medical investigation by our office.”
Mark Epstein, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, and Epstein’s lawyers were among others questioning the official findings.
Martin Weinberg, one of the lawyers, told a judge last year that Epstein was not despairing, despondent, or suicidal.
In addition to the two guards on duty inside Epstein’s block at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center allegedly falling asleep and failing to conduct a series of checks on the inmate, video footage from outside the cell “no longer exists,” the government said in January, blaming the development on an accidental erasure.
A lawyer representing some of Epstein’s alleged victims told The Epoch Times in July that he’s concerned Maxwell will end up dead like Epstein.
“I have grave concerns that she doesn’t make it out of jail alive,” Spencer Kuvin said.
Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
