Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself but was murdered, lawyer claims

Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself but was murdered by someone else, his lawyer has claimed.

The convicted paedophile was found dead in his New York prison cell on August 10 last year while awaiting trial for child sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled as suicide, but a number of conspiracy theories emerged as a result of apparent failures at the prison, such as guards failing to check on him and cameras not working outside his cell.

Lawyer David Schoen, who was asked by Epstein to lead his legal team shortly before his death, has now said he believes the financier did not take his own life. He claims Epstein had been ‘upbeat and excited’ just nine days before his death and was looking forward to clearing his name.

He says the multi-millionaire was in the process of planning a legal and media strategy to take on the allegations against him and was also in a ‘dangerous situation’ due to other prisoners knowing about his extensive wealth.

These other prisoners would ask Epstein about his ‘$70,000,000 mansion’, the lawyer said as part of a new documentary called ‘Who Killed Jeffrey Epstein?’ soon to premiere on Investigation Discovery in the US.

Epstein was facing up to 45 years behind bars at the time of his death. He had pleaded not guilty and remained inside the Metropolitan Correctional Centre awaiting his trial. He had previously been convicted and jailed for procuring an underage girl for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute in 2008.

As soon as Mr Schoen heard he had died, he asked pathologist Michael Baden to be present for the autopsy. Mr Baden concluded that Epstein’s injuries were not consistent with suicide by hanging as the New York City Medical Examiner said.

He claims a broken bone in the paedophile’s neck could mean he was murdered. In the documentary, Mr Schoen said: ‘I think it was a homicide but I don’t know who killed him’.

The lawyer told DailyMail.com he been brought in ‘take over the whole case’ as Epstein’s legal team were in turmoil.

He said: ‘I thought he was getting killed in the media when he could respond, he should at least explain and respond. There was a miserable failure to do so and his lawyers were dysfunctional.’

He said their plan had included an appeal to the ‘public sense of fairness’ as Epstein had not been formally accused of anything since 2005. He also claimed there had been ‘extortion attempts’ by victims’ lawyers, who asked for money to make their accusations go away.

Mr Schoen last saw Epstein during a five hour meeting on August 1, and said he was ‘smiling’ after seeing a prison psychiatrist. He said: ‘He had plans to really fight this case. He’d made arrangements to hire me.’

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