Less than a week after disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in a New York jail, the Justice Department under the first Trump administration destroyed “huge amounts of paperwork.”
A Bureau of Prisons “After-Actions team” went through the jail and shredded the files, according to a report written by an FBI official whose name has been hidden.
The document is part of a group of files that the Department of Justice released earlier this year.
The report said, “I have never seen this amount of bags of shredded documents coming out to be put in the dumpster at the rear gate of the MCC.”
The report continued, “Last week Epstein hung himself, and there is an ongoing investigation.
There was a BOP After-Actions team that came, and they are supposed to review what happened.”
The report also said that at least one inmate was used to help throw the documents into a dumpster.
It mentioned, “[Redacted] was bringing back bags of shredded papers, around 4 or 5 bags, and the caller brought them into the gate to throw into the dumpster.
[Redacted] told the caller that the after-action team is shredding huge amounts of paperwork.”
The report said, “[Redacted] found it suspicious that an after-action team charged with investigating would be shredding huge amounts of paperwork with all of the officials from the AIG, FBI, and BOP in the building in the middle of an investigation.
Those giving instructions to [redacted] said, ‘Make sure you get that box too,’” the document said, referring to the assistant inspector general.
The document noted that the dumpster was being picked up that Monday and said, “if anyone cares about what was shredded, it needs to be picked up before Monday by 8am.”
The circumstances around Epstein’s death, which was officially ruled a suicide, have led to several conspiracy theories.
The New York Post reported on newly released surveillance footage showing two prison guards casually walking near Epstein’s cell the night he died.
The guards can be seen pacing back and forth and talking on the phone instead of doing their mandatory 3:00 a.m. rounds.
Both guards were later accused of lying about checking on Epstein throughout the night, but criminal charges were later dropped.
Epstein is believed to have died sometime between 10:30 p.m. on August 9, 2019, and when his body was found the next morning, around 6:30 a.m.
He had been on suicide watch before his body was found.
Then-Attorney General William Barr said he was “appalled” to learn of Epstein’s death while in federal custody and said it raised “serious questions that must be answered.”
The Department of Justice at the time also told the New York City Police Department to “stand down” their investigation into Epstein just days after his death.
The DOJ also asked the New Mexico DOJ to stop its investigation into Epstein’s Zorro Ranch property. That property is believed to be the burial site of “two foreign girls.”
The Trump administration has been in the news for months over the Epstein case.
Public interest in the Epstein files grew in June after the FBI and DOJ released a joint memo saying Epstein didn’t have a “client list” and that he died by suicide.
Trump’s MAGA supporters got upset with the memo, seeing it as some sort of cover-up.
FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy at the time, Dan Bongino, had long spread conspiracy theories about Epstein’s death.
Trump, who had a long friendship with Epstein, called the files a “Democrat hoax” and told his supporters to “move on” from the files related to the late sex offender.
The DOJ finally released around half of the files, totaling about 3.5 million documents, earlier this year.
The mostly redacted documents show the involvement of many high-profile and powerful people. The president’s name appears thousands of times, though the White House has repeatedly denied the allegations made against Trump in the files.
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