Then-Attorney General William Barr, America’s top law enforcement official, personally questioned the cellmate of alleged child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein after Epstein’s death in 2019.
Epstein death’s immediately sparked conspiracy theories after he was found hanging from a cloth in his cell on August 10, 2019.
“Investigators’ attention turned to Efrain ‘Stone’ Reyes, who had been transferred out of a cell he shared with Epstein the day before the shocking suicide at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan,” the New York Daily News reported. “Reyes’ niece and other sources previously told the Daily News that Reyes was moved to the privately run Queens Detention Facility, which holds cooperating witnesses.”
A source told the newspaper that Reyes was repeatedly interviewed by authorities following Epstein’s death and that Barr personally questioned him and asked questions about the staff at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
“[Reyes] said [Barr] was a good guy,” the source told the newspaper. “Barr was nice about it. [Barr] just wanted to know if [inmates] were being mistreated. What [Reyes] believed happened. Just basically that. [Reyes] told them everything. He cooperated with Barr.”
“Two Metropolitan Correctional Center officers, Tova Noel and Michael Thomas, have pleaded not guilty to sleeping on the job and falsifying records the night of the suicide,” the newspaper added. “The source contacted [The New York Daily News] seeking to dispel conspiracy theories that Reyes’ death had something to do with Epstein. The source said Reyes was deeply troubled by the suicide and did not hesitate to help investigators.”
In November 2019, Barr gave an update on the investigation into Epstein’s death, saying that it was “a perfect storm of screw-ups.”
“I can understand people who immediately, whose minds went to sort of the worst-case scenario because it was a perfect storm of screw-ups,” Barr told The Associated Press. The AP noted that Barr “personally reviewed security footage that confirmed that no one entered the area where Epstein was housed on the night he died.”
“I think it was important to have a roommate in there with him and we’re looking into why that wasn’t done, and I think every indication is that was a screw-up,” Barr continued. “The systems to assure that was done were not followed.”
Barr also mentioned that federal prosecutors in New York were continuing to investigate anyone who may have assisted Epstein in the crimes that he was accused of committing.
“They are definitely pushing things along,” Barr said. “I’ll just say there is good progress being made, and I’m hopeful in a relatively short time there will be tangible results.”