Epstein Updates: No Video, No Check-Ins, No Cellmate

FoxNews: No one checked up on Epstein "for hours" before his death, contrary to policy.

For "several hours" leading up to his death, correctional officers hadn't checked in with Epstein -- despite being required to visit him every 30 minutes, a person familiar with the situation told Fox News.

Additionally, Epstein was supposed to have a cellmate. But the person who was assigned to share a cell with Epstein was transferred on Friday before the 66-year-old's death, according to the Post. It was not immediately clear why the cellmate was transferred nor why no one else was assigned to room with Epstein.

No video. Though this isn't due to a "glitch" in the video, as some claimed previously. It's just that the video cameras are not aimed at the interiors of the cells, but at the hallways outside them.

There's no surveillance video of the incident in which Jeffrey Epstein apparently hanged himself in a federal lockup in Lower Manhattan, law enforcement officials told The Post on Sunday.

Although there are cameras in the 9 South wing where the convicted pedophile was being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, they are trained on the areas outside the cells and not inside, according to sources familiar with the setup there.

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Federal prison officials violated normal procedures by leaving Epstein, 66, alone without a cellmate and not checking on him every 30 minutes the night before he was found, according to a report Sunday.

This could possibly explain the guards' lack of attentiveness:

In addition, both of the guards overseeing the unit were working overtime, with one on his fifth straight day of extra hours and the other forced to remain on duty, the New York Times said.

More on the staffing problem:

The Metropolitan Correctional Center, also known as the MCC, has been wracked with a staffing shortage that has led to secretaries and case managers being pulled in to do the work of corrections officers, according to an official with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Council of Prison Local 33.

The facility is down 38 corrections officers, the official said, forcing those on duty to work double and even triple shifts to fill in the gaps.

"I have not seen anything like this. It is ludicrous," the official said. "They are running these prisons with practically no staffing."

Meanwhile, what about Gislaine Maxwell and Prince Andrew?

As CBS News correspondent Holly Williams reports, documents unsealed on Friday contain allegations that Maxwell, a close acquaintance of Epstein's, played an "important role" in the late billionaire financier's "sexual abuse ring," directing an underage girl to have sex with Epstein and others. Maxwell strenuously denies the allegations. Her current whereabouts are unknown.

"There are multiple victims who claim that Ghislaine Maxwell was a personal participant in recruiting them for Jeffrey Epstein, that she assisted in the scheduling of appointments, multiple victims being delivered to Epstein on a daily basis over an extended period of time," attorney Jack Scarola, who has represented several of Epstein's alleged victims, told CBS News. "There are allegations that Miss Maxwell was an active participant in the sexual abuse."

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The British-born socialite even founded a charitable environmental group.

Of course.

But Maxwell has also been described as a madam. Epstein was reportedly able to shield his alleged co-conspirators from prosecution with a 2007 plea deal. Jack Scarola says that included Ghislaine Maxwell.

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Another famous Brit caught up in this scandal is Prince Andrew, one of Queen Elizabeth II's sons. A 2001 photo shows him with Epstein's alleged victim Virginia Giuffre, and Maxwell.

Update: Gislaine Maxwell had been negotiating with prosecutors for her testimony?

Ghislaine Maxwell was last night reported to be ready to co-operate with the American authorities in their ongoing investigation into Prince Andrew’s late friend Jeffrey Epstein.

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Andrew had turned 40 in the first weeks of the Millennium and was in the throes of a midlife crisis, according to some royal observers. Divorced, teetotal, and piling on the pounds, he had few interests beyond his daughters, watching videos and golf.

Now, Miss Maxwell was to introduce him to another, strange and no doubt far more exciting world; that of a wealthy trans-Atlantic demi monde. And at its heart was her mysterious boyfriend-cum-patron and father figure, the multi-millionaire New York financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Private jets, VIP nightclubs and beach resorts were the necessary accoutrements for this social whirl. And with them came an endless supply of beautiful young women, often very young. Unfortunately, the prince has paid a high price for his brief sortie into this environment. He has become fixed as one of the characters in a celebrity paedophile sex scandal which will not go away.

posted by Ace of Spades at 12:27 PM

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