Disputes about Jeffrey Epstein's death have risen to the top of conspiratorial chatter this week after court documents unsealed revealed more than 80 people who had been associated with the late, disgraced New York financier.
The names were unsealed from a lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre, an alleged trafficking victim, against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's former girlfriend. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted in December 2021 of helping Epstein recruit and sexually abuse underage girls.
Many of those whose names appear in the documents released Wednesday aren't accused of wrongdoing or have been mentioned previously in legal proceedings or news accounts. The documents released Wednesday are not an Epstein "client list."
Epstein was found dead in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking crimes. The circumstances of his death remain an open question for some who believed he was killed; others have wrongly suggested he is still alive. His death was ruled a suicide by the New York City medical examiner's office.
Another story that made its way back into the conversation was that Epstein was visited in jail by former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr.
The Claim
A post on X, formerly Twitter, by entrepreneur William LeGate, posted on January 4, 2024, said: "Why did Trump's DOJ appointee Bill Barr 'visit' Epstein in prison less than 24 hours prior to being found dead?? 🤨"
The Facts
This visit did not happen.
The claim comes from a now partially retracted 2019 New York Post story in which mob informant Lewis Kasman suggested that Barr had visited Epstein's jail "about the time Epstein was found in his cell with bruises around his neck."
Kasman said: "'The attorney general never visits jails. Something's not right there.'"
The story was repeated by other news sources with headlines more explicitly concluding what the Post had reported. However, as later noted by the Post, there was no evidence to support Kasman's point. The New York Post has since removed the reference to Barr, adding in an update note that "the source of the information did not have direct knowledge that the visit took place."
In 2019, fact-checking website Snopes contacted the Department of Justice, of which the Office of Public Affairs replied that Barr had never visited the Metropolitan Correctional Center where Epstein was being held, and that the notion of him visiting without being noticed was suspect as "'the Attorney General has 24/7 FBI protective detail.'"
Factcheck.org also contacted Kasman in 2019 who said: "'I would have no knowledge of the attorney general going there.'" There is no other evidence to suggest that Barr visited the correctional center before Epstein's death.
Barr's name is not on the list revealed in court documents either.
The Ruling
False.
Bill Barr did not visit Jeffrey Epstein in prison 24 hours before he died. The claim is based on comments made, without evidence, to the New York Post by a former mob informant . The Post has since removed the reference to Bill Barr. The informant later said he had no knowledge of Barr visiting Epstein's cell. There is no other evidence to suggest such a visit happened.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team
Uncommon Knowledge
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