FLORIDA (AP) – Sen. Rick Scott is demanding answers about Jeffery Epstein’s suicide at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.
Epstein was awaiting trail on sex-trafficking charges.
Scott released the following statement:
“The victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s heinous actions deserved an opportunity for justice. Today, that opportunity was denied to them. The Federal Bureau of Prisons must provide answers on what systemic failures of the MCC Manhattan or criminal acts allowed this coward to deny justice to his victims.”
Epstein was found unresponsive in his New York cell earlier Saturday and pronounced dead at a hospital.
A person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that Epstein had been taken off suicide watch before his death.
Epstein’s arrest last month launched separate investigations into how authorities handled his case initially when similar charges were first brought against him in Florida more than a decade ago. U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta resigned last month after coming under fire for overseeing that a plea deal that let Epstein avoid federal charges when he was U.S. attorney in Miami.
