Fox medical analyst: Epstein autopsy findings sound “more likely” a homicide to me

“I am now more suspicious than ever,” Marc Siegel tells Bill Hemmer, “that this could be a homicide.” Join the club, some might be tempted to respond, but Fox News’ medical analyst warns viewers to keep an open mind. A broken hyoid bone does not by itself mean that someone else strangled Jeffrey Epstein rather than dying from a suicide attempt.

Now, if the medical examiner finds bruising on the body, all bets are off:

Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel said Thursday that it’s “more likely” Jeffrey Epstein’s death was a homicide rather than a suicide, following a full autopsy of Epstein’s body that reportedly found broken bones in his neck.

“The hyoid bone in the neck being fractured and other fractures in the neck, make it more likely, and again, this is a percentage call, more likely that it was a homicide than a suicide,” Siegel said during an interview on “America’s Newsroom.”

Siegel said he is still waiting for more information before rendering a final opinion, but expressed suspicion and skepticism about the details surrounding Epstein’s death.

“It can either be a suicide or a homicide still… I am now more suspicious than ever that this could be a homicide,” he said.

Like I said, join the club. Jazz wrote about the unusual finding released from the autopsy about the damage in Epstein’s neck and why it makes him suspicious. Allahpundit picked up that ball and added to it this afternoon by noting that Epstein appeared to be in unusually high spirits the night before supposedly offing himself. I’ve written a couple of times about Epstein’s substantial prospects for winning on the double-jeopardy claim. Why take the bedsheet route before seeing how that would unfold?

Perhaps the MCC itself was so awful that it drove Epstein to despair. However, a new revelation from Forbes argues against that theory, too. Epstein was apparently getting favorable treatment from officials, tying up the meeting room for hours at a time — while being visited by a beautiful young woman who may or may not have been his attorney. It was unusual enough for other attorneys to notice it at the time, Forbes reports:

The day after he was taken off suicide watch, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein spent at least two hours locked up alone with a young woman, in a private room reserved for inmates and their attorneys, according to an attorney who was visiting the prison that day.

“The optics were startling. Because she was young. And pretty,” said the visiting attorney, who asked that his name not be used for fear of angering the guards. …

The visiting attorney went to the Manhattan Correctional Center on July 30, a day after Epstein was reportedly taken off suicide watch and transferred into the Special Housing Unit (SHU). During the hours the visiting attorney was present, it wasn’t Epstein’s main lawyer, Reid Weingarten, or other named attorneys who visited him.

“If I was him, I would have hired… an old bald guy,” said the lawyer, who said the young woman was in there with Epstein for at least two hours when he was there. He also pointed out that the room is locked when prisoners go in, after their handcuffs are removed, and unlocked only when prisoners leave and handcuffs are put back on.

Forbes notes that Epstein paid his attorneys to spend as much as eight hours a day in “consultation” in order to avoid having to spend time in his cell. That could cut either way; it could show him so desperate at being alone that he was burning through cash to avoid it, or just so entitled and rich that he could pay top dollar for entertainment. It raises questions once again about the MCC and its adherence to procedures, especially because Epstein’s use of the room impacted the ability of other detainees to consult with their attorneys, whose normal wait time for a consult room went from 15 minutes to two hours while Epstein held court.

Spending that time with a beautiful young woman couldn’t have hurt Epstein’s mood either, even if she was one of his attorneys. It just gets curiouser and curiouser.

By the way, more evidence of incompetence at MCC keeps emerging too, which bolsters the case that neglect allowed Epstein to kill himself. In the days before Epstein’s suicide, MCC accidentally released an serial robbery offender who was ineligible for release. Oops!

The public wants answers to all these questions, but perhaps no one has more invested in getting them than Attorney General William Barr. The investigation is expanding at the DoJ, Yahoo News reports, demonstrating the political risks involved:

In the days since, the investigation into Epstein’s death has expanded to include several more federal entities in both Washington and New York, suggesting that Attorney General William Barr is aware his reputation is tethered to the resolution of the Epstein affair.

An official at the Department of Justice who spoke only on the condition of anonymity told Yahoo News that aside from the Justice Department inspector general and the FBI, the investigation into Epstein’s suicide now also includes the Southern District of New York (the federal court in which Epstein would have faced trial), Main Justice (that is, the department’s Washington headquarters), a Bureau of Prisons after-actions team and Bureau of Prisons psychiatric staff equipped to deal with suicide.

Count the medical examiner in on the probe. One has to wonder if the recent expansion signals that Dr. Siegel isn’t the only one thinking this is more likely a homicide than a suicide.