Attorney General William Barr issued a statement today from the podium, declaring there to be “serious irregularities” already found surrounding the Jeffery Epstein suicide this weekend.
In other news, water continued to run down hill, and Amazon sold stuff.
Jail, or “prison,” is the punitive means by which our society takes away the maximum amount of freedom any one person can have. Preventing suicide should be easier within a jail than even a hospital, or god-forbid, the home of a mentally-ill person.
Yet Epstein succeeded in what he failed to do just three weeks earlier, and six days, prior. That alone suffices to prove that serious irregularities existed.
When the world’s most notorious inmate succeeds in taking his own life, yes, serious questions must be answered. Barr, the master of “obviousness” and “lack of courage” noted that the Manhattan Correctional Center failed to adequately secure the prisoner.”
Right. I agree with Bill Barr, and that is news.
Then Barr went out of his way to note that the issue will be thoroughly investigated by the FBI and the DOJ Inspector General.
Of course, we all have no reason at all to not trust that the investigation will be thorough and non-partisan in assigning blame, just like anything else Bill Barr says, or does. Correct?
Charlie Pierce over at Esquire had it right. Nothing can ever be done to squelch out various conspiracy theories regarding Epstein’s death, given how it occurred. That appears to be another truism, along with the water thing.
But that is what happens when the inexplicable seems to happen anyway, and when what happened would seem to make a lot of powerful people rest easier. Bill Barr to the rescue again. He stated that anyone who conspired with Jeffery Epstein “should not rest easy” … except for political friends of the president and possibly the president himself, Barr did not go on to say.
Here we have a dilemma. It is entirely possible that, faced with a life of unending imprisonment, Jeffery Epstein conned his way into solitude long enough to end his life purely on his own terms. It is also entirely possible that extremely rich and powerful people, already feeling vulnerable, managed to do what extremely rich and powerful people do, silence the person who poses the greatest threat. Moreover, the truth could be a mix of the above.
I refuse to facilitate a conspiracy theory. However I will not naively stay mute when something this egregious happens and a noticeable stench lingers. Either reaction squelches out possible leaks of “truth.” It is for this precise reason why – in the past – we had Attorneys General who, at least with respect to non-political crimes, such as sex-trafficking, could be counted upon to not cover-up inconvenient facts. Anyone doubt that Janet Reno actually would figure out what happened? Eric Holder?
Yet we have already seen this Attorney General carry the water for this president in a largely unprecedented manner, with his great Russian hoax building upon the “Hire Me” memo written before Barr even got the Attorney General position.
Do we now extend full trust again, lest we get labeled as a tinfoil hat conspiracy theory freak? Or do we try to balance some sort of skepticism while also allowing the investigation to play out?
In some ways, it no longer matters. As Pierce noted, no answer will be fully embraced by everyone, not even the truth. Nor should anyone expect differently, when an office like Attorney General is so obviously politicized.
In other news, chickens made it back to roost.
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Peace, y’all.
Jason
I am surprised he has said this much. No, I do not trust what azzhole Barr has to say about anything.
I trust Barr about as far as I can throw my apt. building. When he says he wants us to trust him to get to the bottom of this he might as well say the check is in the mail, or he won’t – well I’ll exercise a bit of discretion but most folks know the second part of that.
Barr has as much credibility as Trump which means less than zero.
This was the highest profile prisoner to date. The Boston bomber isn’t dead. Other high profile prisoners are still alive. Why isn’t Epstein? Irregularities?!Guards working a shitload of overtime? I’ve heard a couple different things about his death. At first “found unresponsive” and CPR was started until they got him to the hospital and pronounced deceased. 2nd one: he hung himself. Also read his roommate was removed because he was an ex-cop and would have beaten him up. So much bullshit out there. Just like Barr quashed Mueller’s report – we can so trust him to release the facts on Epstein’s death – right?
Fantastic observations. The roommate moving out seems the most sus… wait, it IS the most suspicious thing about the entire death. That is truly inexplicable. Roommate a cop who might beat him up? Either give the cop extra good time for not beating him up, or move in a roommate who has been in 20 years and wholly trusted by the staff to be a good person. My wife’s father was chief investigator of guards at a prominent prison in the south, and believe it or not, there are more than a few prisoners who became very good people over a couple decades and were trusted FAR more than some guards at the joint. I met some, it is unfortunate what happened at age 20 can dictate a life still at age 50, but that is how we do it, and in most cases it is warranted. But not all. Even in a jail, where most people are awaiting trial or in for less than a year, it is not hard to find “decent people” who did “stupid things” and could have been wholly trusted. It is totally bizarre and near impossible to not believe coordinated, at least criminally careless.
YEP, it taxes my dwindling mind, to imagine a reasonable answer to the WTF was done to remove the suicide watch, which should have included 24-7 monitors covering every coming/going any way, to or from that cell … with time/date registers and personnel on duty, even facial recognition ability … this prisoner was too hot to NOT do all that with constant manual observation …. I want a thorough rundown of TOD/chks and programmed guard duty and all monitors ….
Then, right NOW, we need to see ANY connection between Barr and ANYBODY working there … any memos, emails or telephoned connections …. from his system to anybody there’s home phones office phones, ANYBODY, even the custodial crews …. for the last month before Epstein was actually there, this action had to be pre-planned to go so fast and smooth ….
Any visitors to the offices of the Prison over the last month and a half, that could have left off a plan of action, for eyes only ….