An internal DOJ Office of Inspector General email from August 17, 2019—just one week after Jeffrey Epstein's death—asking SDNY prosecutors whether they had requirements to monitor and record Epstein's phone calls during his criminal case.

This email chain between a DOJ Inspector General Special Agent and someone at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) shows the OIG investigation into Epstein's death was already underway within days of his August 10, 2019 suicide. The OIG agent asks a pointed question: did SDNY have its own requirements to 'memorialize' (record/document) Epstein's phone calls, and if so, were those requirements followed? This question proved prescient—the eventual OIG report found that an MCC New York supervisor had allowed Epstein to make an unrecorded, unmonitored phone call the evening before his death in violation of BOP policy.

Key Highlights

• •Dated August 17, 2019—just 7 days after Epstein's death, showing immediate OIG investigation
• •Asks whether SDNY prosecutors required Epstein's phone calls to be monitored and if those requirements were followed
• •The 2023 OIG report later confirmed Epstein made an unmonitored call the night before his death
• •Shows coordination between OIG and SDNY in the early days of the death investigation

Frequently Asked Questions