Newly released Justice Department files revealed a chilling document: The announcement of the mysterious death of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is dated August 9, 2019.
That is one day before Epstein died under mysterious circumstances inside his Manhattan jail cell.
The draft appears among at least 23 documents labeled as statements from the Southern District of New York’s U.S. Attorney’s Office. The document bears the signature line of then-U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman and states that Epstein “had been found unresponsive in his cell and pronounced dead shortly thereafter.”
Epstein was found dead on the morning of August 10, 2019, at the Metropolitan Correctional Center while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Officials say his death was a suicide by hanging. Autopsy experts have disputed that claim, and said the evidence points to homicide.
There are multiple versions of similar statements with inconsistent redactions. Some versions leave phone numbers or names visible, while others black out nearly all identifying information. The draft dated August 9 does not describe Epstein’s death as an “apparent suicide,” unlike the officially released statement.
The dated draft emerged alongside other surveillance records that raise questions about activity near Epstein’s cell on the night before his death.
Justice Department documents show investigators reviewing jail surveillance footage flagged an orange-colored figure moving up a staircase toward the locked tier housing Epstein’s cell at approximately 10:39 p.m. on August 9, 2019 – just hours before his body was discovered.
An FBI observation log described the image as “possibly an inmate,” while the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General identified the same figure as a corrections officer carrying orange-colored linen or bedding.
Then-Attorney General William Barr previously claimed that prison surveillance footage showed no one entered the area where Epstein was housed.
Corrections officer Michael Thomas discovered Epstein hanging in his cell shortly after 6:30 a.m. on August 10 and told investigators he “ripped” Epstein down from a hanging position. When investigators asked what happened to the noose, Thomas said, “I don’t recall taking the noose off. I really don’t.”
Anther corrections officer said she saw Thomas lower Epstein to the floor but did not see a noose around his neck. A noose collected at the scene was later determined not to have been used in Epstein’s death. The noose Epstein allegedly used has never been identified.
Epstein had been placed on suicide watch in late July 2019, but was taken off suicide watch just weeks later. He was found dead just before the start of his public trial, where he would have testified in public about his client list.
The death announcement release came as part of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law in November 2025. The Justice Department released approximately 3.5 million pages of documents, 180,000 images, and 2,000 videos on January 30, 2026.