Dr Michael Baden has called for an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s death nearly seven years after the paedophile was found unresponsive in his cell.
This undated photograph in an unidentified location released by the US Justice Department on Decembe (Image: US Department of Justice/AFP via)
Jeffrey Epstein was strangled and not hanged, according to a doctor present at his post-mortem who has now called for the investigation into the paedophile’s death to be reopened. Dr Michael Baden has called for an investigation into Epstein’s death nearly seven years after the paedophile was found unresponsive in a New York prison cell.
The medic said he doesn’t believe Epstein took his own life while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in the US in a direct challenge to the New York Medical Examiner’s Office which found Epstein died by suicide. Dr Baden said: “My opinion is that his death was most likely caused by strangulation pressure rather than hanging.”
The doctor told The Telegraph that given the information now available, further examination into the financier’s death was warranted.
Dr Baden was reportedly at the post-mortem which followed Epstein’s death to observe on behalf of the paedophile’s family.
He is reported to have said that at the time, both he and the medical examiner had agreed that, on the basis of the autopsy report, more information was needed to ascertain the cause and manner of death.
Epstein was arrested on July 6, 2019, on sex trafficking charges brought by prosecutors in New York, who concluded they weren’t bound by an earlier agreement not to prosecute the billionaire in Florida. He was found dead in his jail cell on August 10 the same year.
Epstein’s death was ruled a suicide (Image: Getty)
Dr Baden said his findings following the post mortem on August 11, 2019, were “inconclusive” and Epstein’s death certificate said further investigation of the cause was pending.
Five days later, the decision was allegedly “superseded” by Dr Barbara Sampson, then-chief medical examiner of New York.
She ruled the financier died by suicide, but Dr Baden claimed she wasn’t at the post mortem.
Dr Sampson had publicly dismissed Dr Baden’s theory about strangulation, saying she stood firmly behind her conclusion.
Epstein’s lawyers were also, reportedly, not satisfied with Dr Sampson’s ruling.
Dr Baden, 92, told the Telegraph his opinion is still that the evidence points towards homicide rather than suicide.
Epstein’s body was found in a cell at New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center (Image: Getty)
Footage which emerged under the latest release of files about Epstein shows the moment prison guards find his dead body.
Video shows what appears to be the outline of a prison guard approaching a desk near Epstein’s cell at 6.30am on the day he died.
Seconds later, the person then makes their way to the cell and just over a minute later a guard can be seen moving backwards and forwards between a security desk.
The guards can then be seen running between two areas. According to newly-released files, investigators noticed an orange shape moving up stairs towards his cell on the night he died.
FBI and the US Department of Justice officials raised the suspicious CCTV footage, which may have shown another prisoner going up to the floor where Epstein was held.
A report noted that at 10.39pm on August 9, 2019, FBI agents observed “a flash of orange” that looked “to be going up the L Tier stairs” which could “possibly be an inmate escorted up to that Tier”.
Officials appeared to dispute what the orange flash was, with some arguing it was another inmate and other that it was a correctional officer.
Bill Barr, who was Attorney General during US President Donald Trump‘s first term, said in 2019 that he had reviewed video footage and no one entered the area where Epstein was being held on the night he died.
