During a Senate hearing on the circumstances surrounding Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 death in federal custody, Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana sparked major attention with a blunt remark comparing Epstein’s death to things that “don’t hang themselves.” The hearing, held on November 19, examined why Epstein—who officials reported died by suicide—was left unsupervised for nearly eight hours in a Manhattan jail. U.S. prosecutors continue to investigate oversight failures and procedural lapses at the facility as questions about Epstein’s treatment persist.
#EpsteinInvestigation #SenJohnKennedy #EpsteinHearing #EpsteinDeath #FederalCustody #JeffreyEpsteinCase #CongressHearing #USJusticeSystem #ManhattanJail #EpsteinSuicide #BreakingNews #USPolitics #SenateHearing #JusticeDepartment #EpsteinUpdates #PrisonReform #CustodyFailures
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#EpsteinInvestigation #SenJohnKennedy #EpsteinHearing #EpsteinDeath #FederalCustody #JeffreyEpsteinCase #CongressHearing #USJusticeSystem #ManhattanJail #EpsteinSuicide #BreakingNews #USPolitics #SenateHearing #JusticeDepartment #EpsteinUpdates #PrisonReform #CustodyFailures
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00:00Christmas ornaments, drywall, and Jerry Epstein.
00:05Name three things that don't hang themselves.
00:08That's what the American people think.
00:12That's what the American people think.
00:15And they deserve some answers.
00:17And I know that you're not in charge of these investigations.
00:22Yes, sir.
00:23But you talk to the people who are.
00:26And I need you to take a very respectful message today.
00:36Tell the American people what happened.
00:40And don't rush it so that they don't do a thorough investigation.
00:44But you and I both know they can make this a top priority
00:48and get it done more quickly than they normally would.
00:52As I indicated in my opening statement,
00:53I wanted to talk about the death of Mr. Epstein.
00:57Do you concur with the opinion that it was a suicide?
01:02That was the finding of the coroner, sir.
01:05Okay. Do you have any evidence to suggest otherwise?
01:07I do not.
01:08How could this have happened?
01:11Unfortunately, sir, the death and the whole situation
01:14is still under the investigation of the FBI
01:16and the Inspector General's Office.
01:18And I'm really not at liberty to discuss specifics of this case.
01:23I can discuss issues around institutional operations,
01:26but I can't specifically talk about that particular issue.
01:29Okay.
01:31With a case this high profile,
01:34there's got to be either a major malfunction of the system
01:37or a criminal enterprise at foot to allow this to happen.
01:40So are you looking at both?
01:43Is the FBI looking at both?
01:45If the FBI is involved, then they are looking at criminal enterprise, yes.
01:48Do we have people in custody today of this high profile nature?
01:54Have we done anything to adjust since Mr. Epstein's death?
01:58Sir, we take every inmate's life very seriously in the Bureau of Prisons.
02:01A high profile inmate is no more important or significant in terms of our operations
02:06than just the average inmate that comes our way.
02:09What do you mean high profile?
02:09Somebody's on a suicide watch.
02:11I would like to explain our suicide watch system, if I may.
02:14I can't talk specifically about Epstein,
02:16but we have different tiers of response if we identify an inmate
02:20who appears to have suicidal thinking.
02:22And I came into the Bureau as a psychologist.
02:24I've worked with lots of suicidal inmates.
02:26I was a warden at our psychiatric facility in Butner,
02:28and I know how difficult it is to always be able to predict
02:30who is suicidal and who is not.
02:32But once an inmate is identified as potentially suicidal,
02:34we have a suicide watch operation that we can place them in.
02:37It's a very stark, very difficult setting where everything is stripped from the room
02:41except a mattress.
02:42They get a coarse gown like to wear that cannot be twisted in any way
02:47that they could hang themselves from it.
02:48They have one mattress and one blanket, and they are watched constantly.
02:52There's nothing else in that room.
02:53Is Mr. Epstein on suicide watch?
02:55Yes, he watched.
02:56However, the average time on suicide watch is only about 24 hours
03:00because it is such a stark and actually depressing situation.
03:03We then can move them to another tier of observation,
03:06which is called psychological observation.
03:08Did that happen in this case?
03:09I can't speak specifically, but I am sharing this with you
03:12so that you understand our procedure, sir.
03:14They then can move to another tier, which is psychological observation,
03:19where they get their clothes back.
03:20They're in a more normalized setting.
03:22They are watched and scrutinized every moment of the day.
03:25But that is a much more normal environment.
03:27Do they have roommates?
03:28I'm sorry, sir?
03:29Do they have roommates?
03:30No, they do not when they're on psychological observation
03:33because they're being watched continuously.
03:34Did Mr. Epstein have a roommate when he allegedly committed suicide?
03:37No, he did not.
03:38Okay.
03:40Go ahead.
03:41They move into psychological observation.
03:44Psychologists see them routinely, interview them repeatedly,
03:46and once it's determined that the threat of suicide seems to have passed,
03:53then that inmate can be returned back to open population.
03:56Well, clearly it didn't work here, so we await the report
04:01because all the victims of Mr. Epstein have to have their heart ripped out.
04:06They'll never see justice.
04:10Dr. Sawyer, can you think of any other incidents in the history of the BOP
04:14that have caused as much crisis for public trust for your institution as Epstein's death?
04:19I can only speak since 1976 when I joined the Bureau.
04:23I don't know prior to that.
04:25But I would say it's probably gotten the most public attention.
04:28There are lots of taxpayers and citizens who've never thought about the BOP,
04:31and you have lots of good patriotic, hardworking folks there.
04:34I get that.
04:35But in terms of a crisis of public trust in general, but also in terms of your workforce,
04:40this death happened in the middle of August, early August.
04:43It's Thanksgiving, and you're here to testify today,
04:46and you say you're not allowed to speak about this incident.
04:48I think that's crazy.
04:49Can you distinguish among types of investigations at least for us?
04:53Because I'm aware of at least three Epstein investigations.
04:55You get a whole bunch of women who were raped by this guy.
04:58This is a sex trafficking ring in the United States.
05:01This guy had evidence.
05:03He's got co-conspirators, and there are victims out there who want to know
05:06where the evidence has gone.
05:09Can you tell us a little bit more about the different investigations?
05:12I understand there's at least one that you're directed by Maine Justice not to speak about,
05:16but there are at least three investigations.
05:17Can you unpack them, please?
05:19There are two investigations that are ongoing.
05:21One is the FBI's investigation, and the other is the Inspector General's investigation.
05:25Both inside BOP, but there's a third one outside,
05:27which is why Epstein was in your institution to begin with.
05:30Yeah, and that, sir, is completely out of my...
05:33I get that.
05:34There's a lot here where DOJ has failed.
05:36There's a lot here that BOP has failed.
05:38Let's just be clear, so we have a level set for everybody in this room.
05:40You're in your job because of this crisis, right?
05:44You come here today, and you say you can't testify about it,
05:46but the reason you're director now is because the last guy got fired, right?
05:50Senator, I can't tell you what I don't know.
05:52I have received no information from the FBI investigation yet,
05:55nor no information from the Inspector General.
05:57Once those entities go into one of our facilities,
06:00we are forbidden from talking to anybody in the institution.
06:03We can send in a team and look at wherever there might have been a security flaw or something,
06:07but we are not allowed to talk to anybody in our institutions about anything that happened over the episode.
06:13With all due respect, you still have an obligation to speak to the girls who were raped by this guy
06:18today.
06:18You may not have to speak about every particular of the guards that were arrested last night,
06:23but the fact that there is an ongoing attempt by the United States government
06:26to find out if there's still any evidence about the co-conspirators,
06:30you do have an obligation to speak to those girls who were raped today.
06:34You may not speak about the specifics of the charges against those two guards this morning
06:40who were taken into custody, but more broadly, you should be able to unpack,
06:44have we changed any processes about how cases like this are handled?
06:48It's been more than 90 days, and you said, I think your quote was,
06:51we treat every inmate the same.
06:53We believe in America that every individual has equal dignity,
06:57but not every inmate has equal value for future criminal investigations.
07:01Jeffrey Epstein was still to testify in a case.
07:04Somebody who's already been convicted who may be on suicide watch,
07:08there are lots of good reasons to not want that guy to be able to kill himself.
07:11This is different, because it isn't just about the individual inmate who might kill themselves,
07:16it's about the fact that that bastard wasn't able to testify against his other co-conspirators.
07:21So it is wrong as a management matter for you to say we treat everybody the same.
07:26We should be treating people who are yet to testify against other felons, against other rapists.
07:32They have a lot more priority for your institution, don't they?
07:36Senator, pretty much all of our inmates that are in any of our jail facilities are pretrial.
07:40They're still yet to testify, to be involved, to share information on other cases.
07:45I don't know what evidence you're asking of me.
07:47If you're saying, was there any evidence in his room, in his possession at the time?
07:50That was all confiscated by the FBI.
07:52In his brain, and in the cameras, and in the tapes, that the American public well understands,
07:56appear to not be urgent enough for the Department of Justice.
07:59No, it's very urgent for the Department of Justice, and it's all been confiscated by the FBI,
08:04and it's all part of their investigation.
08:05That's why none of that is shared with the Director of the Bureau of Prisons,
08:08or anyone in the Bureau, until the investigations are completed.
08:12Once those are completed, I'd be very happy to come up here and talk with any one of you that
08:15want to hear
08:16everything about we glean from those investigations.
08:19But until I have that information, there's nothing I can tell you.
08:22If I don't have the information, I cannot share anything with you.
08:25Then how widespread is the problem of sleeping on the job?
08:28There are lots of people in the public who think this seems a very convenient excuse,
08:32and so tell us, is it a systemic problem?
08:35Do we have a lot of people who sleep on the job when they're supposed to be guarding federal inmates?
08:39We have a few, sir, and we have been monitoring the cameras that are existing in every one of our
08:44institutions
08:44to determine how well and how effectively our staff members are doing their rounds and counts in the institutions.
08:51We have found a couple of other instances, and we have immediately referred those to the Inspector General's Office,
08:56and I'm encouraging that if people just chose not to do their job,
09:00we're hoping the U.S. Attorney's Office will pick up those cases and prosecute them for us,
09:04because we don't want those people in the Bureau of Prisons.
09:07They are dangerous to everybody, the inmates and the staff.
09:10And so we are zealously going about trying to determine which of our employees are good employees
09:16and who do their job, and that is the vast majority of the prison staff.
09:19But we do have some, I know, out there who obviously choose not to follow policy,
09:25choose not to do their job, and we want them gone.
09:28I do not want them in our institutions, and I am exploring those very, very carefully
09:31to identify them and get them out of our system.
09:34Now, if it's a training problem and they didn't know what they were supposed to do,
09:37that's our problem. That's management's problem. We have to do a better job training our staff.
09:41But if someone is well-trained, well-experienced, and chooses not to do their job, we want them gone.
09:47I assure you of that.
09:49I'm at time, so I'll just give you a preview of something I'm going to ask you for the record
09:53after the event.
09:53You made a really important statement about drone drops of different kinds of contraband into your institutions.
09:59That's obviously a new and hard problem. That's a problem against which we have to play defense,
10:03but there's also new opportunities for offense.
10:05And so what's your long-term strategy is inside the institution about cameras
10:09is something that I think a lot of us would like to hear more,
10:12and I'll send you a letter with some questions.
10:13Because Epstein's hallway should have still been monitored by cameras even if his guards were asleep,
10:18and we don't have information about whether or not there were adequate cameras there.
10:22And so I think a lot of us would like to understand where technology dollars are going.
10:26Absolutely. Thank you, Doctor.
10:26Thank you, Senator.
10:27Senator Blumenthal is next, but just follow up on this.
10:29Will there be an IG report regarding what happened?
10:33There should be.
10:34Usually after the Inspector General's Office investigates, they do come out with a report.
10:37If people are pending criminal charges, we're not going to interfere in their cases.
10:40But if there's an IG report, I promise you we'll get fully briefed by the committee here.
10:49How can I put this?
10:52It's Christmas ornaments, drywall, and Jerry Epstein.
10:57Name three things that don't hang themselves.
11:01That's what the American people think.
11:04That's what the American people think.
11:07And they deserve some answers.
11:09And I know that you're not in charge of these investigations.
11:14Yes, sir.
11:15But you talk to the people who are.
11:18And I need you to take a very respectful message today.
11:28Tell the American people what happened.
11:32And don't rush it so that they don't do a thorough investigation.
11:35But you and I both know they can make this a top priority and get it done more quickly than
11:43they normally would.
11:45Director, the first time you saw Donald Trump's name was in the Epstein files.
11:49Did you close the files or keep reading?
11:54I have reviewed not the entirety of the files.
11:58So you haven't reviewed all of the Epstein files?
12:01Personally, no.
12:02You're the director of the FBI.
12:03This is the largest sex trafficking case the FBI has ever been a part of.
12:08Buck stops at the top.
12:10And your testimony today is you have not reviewed all the files.
12:12What I've been doing is been busy providing the safest country this country has seen in modern U.S. history
12:18in historic speed because the men and women of the FBI are given the resources to reduce the homicide rate,
12:23to reduce the drug trafficking rate, to reduce the amount of children that are being trafficked.
12:28And the number of.
12:28It sounds like those children being trafficked appreciate the director reviewing the files.
12:32You said you don't know the number of times Trump's name appears in the files.
12:35So it could at least be a thousand times.
12:38Is that right?
12:40The number is a total misleading factor.
12:43We have not released anyone's name.
12:44We have not released anyone's name in the Epstein files that has not been credible.
12:49Director, could it at least be a thousand times?
12:50We have released every piece of legally permissible information.
12:53Okay.
12:54You can characterize the numbers however you want it.
12:56Be claiming my time, director.
12:57It sounds like if you don't know the number, it could at least be a thousand times.
13:01It's not.
13:02It's not.
13:03Is it at least 500 times?
13:04No.
13:04Is it at least 100 times?
13:06No.
13:06Then what's the number?
13:07I don't know the number, but it's not that.
13:09Do you think it might be your job to know the number?
13:11My job is to provide for the safety and security of this country.
13:15My job is not to engage in political innuendo so you can go out to the sticks and get your
13:1920 second hit in your fundraising article.
13:22So reclaiming my time, director.
13:22Keep going, reclaiming your time because the people of California are being underserved by
13:27your representation.
13:28If the president is not implicated, why not release everything that involves.
13:31We have released everything, the president and anyone else's side that is credible and
13:35lawfully be able to be released.
13:38Your fixation on this matter and basis accusations that I'm hiding child pedophiles is disgusting.
13:44Anyone that says that needs to look at the stats alone.
13:47And go back to the state of California who's receiving the biggest surge in FBI resources through
13:51my redeployment because the cities of Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco need it.
13:56Reclaiming my time, director.
13:56Remembering your oath to tell the truth, did you ever tell Donald Trump his name is in the
14:00files?
14:02MS.
14:02I have never spoken to president Trump about the Epstein files.
14:06MR.
14:06Did you ever tell the attorney general that Donald Trump's name is in the Epstein files?
14:11The attorney general and I have had numerous discussions about the entirety of the Epstein
14:15files and the reviews conducted by our teammates.
14:17Did you tell the attorney general that Donald Trump's name is in the Epstein files?
14:20And we have released where president Trump's name.
14:22It's a simple question.
14:23Did you tell the attorney general that the president's name is in the Epstein files?
14:26during many conversations that the Attorney General and I have had on the matter of Epstein,
14:31we have reviewed. The question is simple. Did you tell the Attorney General that Donald Trump's name
14:39is in the Epstein files? Yes or no? Why don't you try spelling it out? Yes or no, Director. Use
14:43the
14:43alphabet. Yes or no? No, A, B, C, E, F. Director, it sounds like you don't want to tell us.
14:49Did you
14:49tell the Attorney General that Donald Trump's name was in the Epstein files? Why don't you try
14:53serving your constituency by focusing on reducing violent crime in this country and the number
14:58of pedophiles that are legally harbored in your sanctuary cities in California? I'll work with
15:03you on that. Do you want to work with us on that? I belong to the gentleman from California. Did
15:08you
15:08tell the Attorney General that Donald Trump's name is in the Epstein files? The question has been asked
15:12and answered. You have not answered it and we will take your evasiveness as a consciousness of guilt.
15:17Director, did Donald Trump ever say to you, just find and release the entire truth? Don't worry if
15:24I'm in it. The instructions from the administration were to release all credible information and we
15:28have done that. Did Donald Trump ever provide information about Jeffrey Epstein as an informant?
15:34Donald Trump has not been and I can only speak for the FBI and informant of the FBI.
15:39So Director, you've played this cute shell game where you say you can't release everything because
15:43the court has said that it legally is not allowed to be released. But the court calls bullshit.
15:49Judge Richard Berman said that when you went to the court, quote, information contained in the
15:55Epstein grand jury transcripts pales, pales in comparison to Epstein investigation information and
16:02materials in the hands of the Department of Justice. So let's move on, Director. You wrote a book
16:09called Government Gangsters. You identified 20 individuals in that book. You put me on that list
16:15at the top of the list. Thank you. My children find it flattering. 20 of those individuals have
16:20been investigated or have had adverse actions. Director, considering that you have identified
16:25these people as, quote, government gangsters, will you recuse yourself from making any investigation
16:31decisions about these individuals? Anyone that has been terminated at the FBI has been done so
16:35because they failed to meet the muster of their constitutional obligation. I will work on the
16:40audiovisual capabilities. I'm going to borrow your terminology and call bullshit on your entire
16:44career in Congress. It has been a disgrace to the American people. You can reclaim your time all
16:49you want. Mr. Chairman, you're going to allow a witness to speak this way? Mr. Chairman, would you
16:54recuse yourself? The gentleman has no time. Mr. Chairman, would you admonish the witness not to
16:59insult members? The gentleman has no time. Mr. Chairman, quick point of order. Could the
17:04gentleman be extended an additional 20 seconds to complete his thoughts since the witness decided
17:09to interrupt him continuously? And then the witness will be able to respond if he wants. We'll make
17:13sure he has time to do that. My question is, will you, Director, recuse yourself, yes or no,
17:18from investigating or making decisions about the 60 individuals, including myself, that you
17:23identified as government gangsters? Yes or no? Time of the gentleman has expired. The witness may
17:28respond if he would like. And the answer was no, as I heard.
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