News

News

May 21, 2025

Epstein Died of Suicide, FBI Chiefs Say

FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino confirmed Epstein ‘killed himself’ in a Manhattan jail in 2019.

Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide, according to FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino.

The FBI chiefs confirmed Epstein’s cause of death during a joint interview with Fox News on Sunday.

Patel said that he was confident that Epstein killed himself, while also acknowledging that others may believe something suspicious actually happened to him at the New York detention facility in 2019.

“They have their right to their opinion but as someone who has worked as a public defender, as a prosecutor who’s been in that prison system, who’s been in the Metropolitan Detention Center, who’s been in segregated housing, you know a suicide when you see one, and that’s what that was,” Patel told Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo.

Bongino agreed with Patel’s statement that Epstein died by suicide.

“He killed himself … I have seen the whole file,” Bongino added during the interview. “He killed himself.”

In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges in Florida of soliciting a prostitute and procuring a minor for prostitution, which was part of a plea deal. He was initially sentenced to 18 months in jail but served just 13 months in prison, leaving the jail almost every day as part of a work release deal.

Epstein was found dead in his cell on Aug. 10, 2019, as he awaited trial on federal charges that he allegedly orchestrated a sex trafficking ring with his longtime partner and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.

Epstein, who owned a large private island in the Caribbean and a private jet, was known to be well-connected and socialized with many powerful and wealthy public figures.

Back in 2023, the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued a report on the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ custody and supervision of Epstein. The OIG in the report cited the medical examiner’s autopsy, saying his injuries were indicative of a suicide by hanging rather than a homicide by strangulation.

The OIG ultimately concluded that staff provided Epstein the opportunity to kill himself by failing to assign him a cellmate the day before his death, allowing him to have more linens than were normal, and not monitoring him for long periods of time.

The Trump administration has vowed full transparency in high-profile cases that are of interest to the American public. When President Donald Trump took office for a second term in January, he signed an executive order directing a review of classified records that are of public interest, such as the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.

22 More People, Entities Charged in Arizona Medicaid Fraud Scheme

The operators of a behavioral health company are accused of billing the state $60 million for services not provided.

An Arizona grand jury has indicted 22 individuals and entities linked to a massive Medicaid fraud scheme involving sober living homes.

The charges include money laundering, theft, conspiracy, fraudulent schemes, patient referral fraud, and forgery, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced Tuesday.

These indictments are part of an ongoing investigation into a $2.7 billion fraud that exploited Arizona’s health care system, particularly targeting Native Americans seeking treatment for drug and alcohol addiction.

According to the charge document, the 20 individuals indicted are associated with a church and a mental health organization called Happy House Behavioral Health. Prosecutors allege that Happy House was paid over $60 million for services that were either never rendered or only partially completed. Some of the billing, they say, was for clients who were deceased or incarcerated.

Prosecutors also allege that sober living facilities referred clients to Happy House, which in turn received funds from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), the state’s Medicaid agency. Happy House then allegedly paid the referring sober homes for those client placements, an arrangement at the center of the fraudulent scheme charges.

Among the money laundering charges is a $5 million payment that Happy House allegedly made in July 2023 to Hope of Life International Church, which later transferred $2 million to an entity in Rwanda.

Lawyers representing Happy House and Hope of Life International Church could not be immediately reached for comments.

More than 100 individuals and multiple companies have so far been charged in cases cases tied to Arizona’s sweeping crackdown on Medicaid fraud and unlicensed sober living homes, many of which specifically targeted members of Native American tribes.

Starting around 2019, scammers lured individuals into fraudulent treatment programs by promising food, shelter, and addiction recovery services. Instead, they were placed in sober living homes where operators often allowed or even encouraged continued drug and alcohol use, according to state officials. Victims were often cut off from family contact, and in some cases held against their will, the charges allege.