FBI Warned ‘Bags’ of Documents Were Being Shredded at NY Jail Days After Epstein Death

The New York Post

FBI agents received reports about “bags” of documents being shredded and discarded at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan days after the death of convicted child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.

The Miami Herald released a report on Saturday detailing multiple stories from people at the jail who were concerned about the unusual amount of material being thrown away.

Epstein died of an apparent suicide in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges. His death has led to numerous conspiracy theories, fueled by details like a minute being missing from the security footage outside his cell the day he died. Epstein also reported being attacked by his cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, after being found unconscious in his cell. Epstein later retracted his story and Tartaglione denied attacking him. Tartaglione was facing charges connected to four murders, and he’s since been convicted.

After Epstein’s death, of an apparent hanging, on August 10, the FBI’s Threat Operations Center received a call on August 16 from a corrections officer, identified as Michael Kearins, at the correctional facility. An FBI form summarizing the interview said the “caller found it suspicious that an after-action team charged with investigating would be shredding huge amounts of paperwork,” while FBI and other agencies were present in the building.

It’s unclear if these individuals allegedly shredding documents were directly connected to the jail or part of BOP’s after action review team.

The officer warned that the documents were thrown into a dumpster and would need to be collected before Monday at 8 a.m. when it was set to get picked up. It appears the dumpster was not checked.

One inmate also claimed he was asked to help with the shredding of boxes of documents. He said he did not recognize the officials.

“They are shredding everything,” the inmate reportedly told guards.

An assistant federal prosecutor, many of the names in documents are redacted, later wrote an email as part of a probe into the allegations in which another issue with the jail was brought up.

“We are also investigating any efforts, following Epstein’s death, to obstruct justice by destroying relevant records at MCC. In particular, we learned today that all institutional count slips prior to August 10, 2019, which we requested on August 12, 2019, are apparently ‘missing,'” the prosecutor wrote.

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) later interviewed the inmate who allegedly helped throw away documents. The interview lasted 15 minutes and the inmate was only asked yes or no questions. He denied knowing about shredding and said he did his “usual trash bin runs.” Kearins was also interviewed, but the probe was ultimately closed.

Another corrections officer also wrote to the FBI on August 19 about the unusual amount of shredded material being thrown away.

“I believe that this conduct may be inappropriate for [an] investigative team to be shredding paperwork related to the investigation and you may want to investigate why BOP employees are destroying records,” the officer wrote.

“Can we take a look at the Dumpster ASAP to see if the paper is still there? Possible they didn’t dump it yet,” a federal agent replied before the trash was collected that morning.

Check out the full Miami Herald report here.

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