Barr tells House panel Jeffrey Epstein’s death was ‘undoubtedly suicide’

The former US attorney general William Barr has repeated his finding that Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 death in prison was “undoubtedly suicide” to a panel of lawmakers looking into the disgraced financier’s crimes and connections.

Barr, the top prosecutor in Donald Trump’s first term when the justice department brought sex trafficking charges against Epstein, made the comments to the House oversight committee late Monday, according to an interview transcript.

Conspiracy theories have for years swirled that Epstein was murdered while in federal custody, an idea promoted by a family member and by Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. A series of security lapses at the Metropolitan correctional center in New York where Epstein was held have served to bolster the claims, for which there is no hard evidence.

In an August deposition with the committee, Barr maintained his belief that Epstein had killed himself, and said he had been aware that Epstein was on suicide watch prior to his death.

Barr said that as the investigation into Epstein’s death progressed, “it became clearer and clearer to me that it was undoubtedly suicide” and that he did not believe it was possible for someone to get into Epstein’s cell without being captured on security cameras.

“For me, the video was the icing on the cake,” Barr said. “There was a lot of evidence about, you know, his state of mind and other physical evidence pointing to suicide and also testimonial and records pointing to this.

“It was my judgment, from what I saw on the camera and what I looked at, I didn’t think it was possible for someone to get up to the tier and open the door without being picked up in the camera,” he said.

But Barr acknowledged that the camera did have “a bit of a blind spot” and said he understood that might make people “suspicious”.

Barr also described how he had informed Trump of Epstein’s death.

“I called [the president] up and said, ‘You better brace for this,’ and I told him words to that effect, and I told him about it and told him we were going to be investigating it very vigorously,” Barr said.

“He had the same reaction I did, which was, ‘How the hell did that happen, he’s in federal custody?’”

In a second conversation with the president on the subject, Trump “said something to the effect that he had broken off with Epstein long ago and that he had actually pushed him out of Mar-a-Lago”, Barr recalled.

Trump and Epstein had a well-publicized falling out over a real estate deal, after having been friends for about 15 years.

Barr’s testimony came as the committee released letters from former US attorneys general Alberto Gonzalez and Jeff Sessions indicating they had no relevant information or knowledge of the subject.

The committee chairman, James Comer, has also asked the Epstein estate for unredacted cash ledgers, message logs, calendars and flight logs. The estate has already turned over some documents but many lack detailed information.

The former US attorney Alex Acosta, who oversaw a contentious plea deal with Epstein in 2008 that allowed him to plead guilty to Florida solicitation charges, is scheduled to appear before the panel on Friday. Under the deal, Epstein served only 13 months in jail.