Epstein Could Not Have Killed Himself, Says Man Who Had Same Cell

Former inmate Michael Franzese, who served time in the same prison cell as convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, said on NewsNation Monday there was “just no way” Epstein could have committed suicide.

Epstein died in 2019. Autopsy results said that he hanged himself in his jail cell, according to the medical examiner’s office and also as reported by the New York Times. During an appearance on “Banfield,” Franzese dismissed the theory that Epstein died by suicide and said it’s physically impossible to carry out such an act in that cell.

“I spent seven months on that tier and in those cells. And the first thing I have to say, there’s just no way you are able to commit suicide. There’s just no way. There’s just no way to hang yourself. There’s nothing from the ceiling, You’d have to be a midget and work really hard to try to hang yourself, and I don’t think you’re gonna accomplish it at that point,” Franzese said.

Franzese also questioned the plausibility of the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death, such as the cameras malfunctioning and guards failing to patrol the cell.

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“You know, as far as the cameras being off, I haven’t experienced that. I did eight years in prison, and I haven’t experienced cameras being broken and a perfect storm of correctional officers not walking those cells. They walk in, and they look in on you all the time,” Franzese said.

Franzese then described the constant surveillance inmates faced, such as the frequent checks by correctional officers that made privacy virtually nonexistent, even in situations as basic as using the toilet.

“As a matter of fact, you know, sometimes it’s embarrassing to go to the toilet because they’re walking past you and looking in the cell constantly. So I’ve said this from day one. I do not believe it was suicide,” Franzese said. “I can’t talk about what happened to him, but I don’t believe it was a suicide because you just couldn’t physically do it. It would be almost impossible to do it.”

When asked about the prison video, Franzese commented on the missing minute and said the situation seemed suspicious, given his familiarity with the area.

“The fact that a minute is missing, you know, look, everything around this guy, I just did a very deep dive into him, which I’ll be releasing on my platform in the next several days. You know, look, there’s no way that this person operated alone. You know, look, they have the videos. [Harvard Law professor] Alan Dershowitz recently said that he saw the client list, but because there’s people that he knows, he can’t, because he’s an attorney, he can’t, you know, reveal what he saw,” Franzese added. “But he said he saw the client list. He’s demanding that it be released.”

Dershowitz said that he has seen Epstein’s full client list but is bound by confidentiality rules preventing him from revealing the names. He accused officials of deliberately suppressing key documents to protect certain individuals involved in the case.

Earlier in July, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI said they found no evidence that Epstein maintained a “client list” or was a victim of foul play, according to an Axios report. The memo, published by Axios, said the review uncovered no proof that Epstein blackmailed powerful figures, kept a “client list” or was murdered. (RELATED: Reporter Asks Pam Bondi About Missing Minute In Epstein Jail Footage)

The DOJ also released more than 10 hours of video footage from outside Epstein’s jail cell to support the claim that he killed himself, despite earlier reports that the CCTV footage had been lost. The FBI’s independent review of the footage said that from the time Epstein was locked in his cell around 10:40 p.m. on August 9, 2019, until around 6:30 a.m. the next morning, nobody entered any of the tiers in the Special Housing Unit.

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