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Epstein warden gets new job at prison despite suicide probe

Move comes despite ongoing federal investigation into disgraced financier's death

Graeme Massie
Los Angeles
Friday 12 February 2021 17:10 GMT
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Epstein warden gets new job at prison despite suicide probe
Epstein warden gets new job at prison despite suicide probe (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

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The warden who ran the New York federal jail when disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein killed himself has been put in charge of another prison. 

The move comes despite an ongoing federal investigation and after the Bureau off Prisons said it would delay reassigning Lamine N’Diaye until the inquiry was completed.

Now Mr N’Diaye is working as the acting warden at New Jersey’s FCI Fort Dix low-security prison, according to the Associated Press.

The Bureau of Prisons reportedly had tried to install Mr N’Diaye in the job last year but was blocked by then attorney general Bill Barr.

At the time the bureau said it would postpone any transfer until the probe into Epstein’s death by suicide had been finished.

Epstein, 66, already a convicted sex offender, was arrested in July 2019 and charged with sex trafficking by federal prosecutors.

He pleaded not guilty to abusing and trafficking women and girls in Manhattan and Florida from 2002 to 2005.

On 10 August, 2019, Epstein was found dead in his federal jail cell at Manhattan's Metropolitan Correctional Center, and the New York City Medical Examiner's Office later ruled his death a suicide by hanging.

In 2008 he pleaded guilty to a Florida state prostitution charge, and completed a 13-month jail sentence, which is now viewed as far too lenient.

Epstein was supposed to be under surveillance from two prison officers when he killed himself.

They are both now awaiting trial on charges they lied on prison records because they were sleeping and using the internet rather than watching Epstein.

The Justice Department is carrying out the review into Epstein’s death, including why he was not given a cellmate.

Following Epstein death Mr N’Diaye was given a desk job at the bureau’s regional office in Pennsylvania.

Court papers have shown that as of the end of 2020 Epstein's estate had paid out $49.8 million to an unspecified number of victims through the Epstein Victims Compensation Fund between June and 31 December 2020.

“Lamine N’Diaye reported to FCI Fort Dix for a temporary assignment as acting warden on Monday, 1 February, 2021,” said a Bureau of Prison’s spokesperson in a statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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