Jeffrey Epstein: Lawyer who met with paedophile before his death doesn’t believe he died by suicide

David Schoen was speaking to Fox Nation’s Deep Dive on Thursday

Jeffrey Epstein died in his prison cell on 10 August (AP)

A lawyer who met with Jeffrey Epstein in the days before his death doesn’t believe the convicted sex offender died by suicide.

David Schoen, a Federal Criminal Defence and Civil Rights Lawyer told Fox Nation’s Deep Dive on Thursday that when he met with Epstein, “he was upbeat and excited about going forward.”

Epstein died by suicide on 10 August 2019 while in custody, ahead of a trial for sex-trafficking charges.

In the days before his death, he met with several lawyers to plan a case strategy and Mr Schoen claims that he and Epstein were planning for the future.

“We met for five hours on 1 August. I said that I would want to meet with his team first to see how they felt about that and then we would go forward.”

“We mapped out a strategy going forward.”​

Mr Schoen claimed the conversations he had with other lawyers helped convince him that Epstein didn’t die by suicide.

“The following day, I got a phone call from one of his lawyers saying he just met with him after I met with him. How excited he is about going forward with this. If I could get in that night and start giving orders to the team, it would be a great help.” Mr Schoen said.

The lawyer says he met with Epstein just a few days before his death and that they agreed to start working together.

“The reason I say I don’t believe it was suicide is for my interaction with him that day. The purpose of asking me to come there that day and over the past previous couple of weeks was to ask me to take over his defence.”

“We came to an agreement during the course of that discussion,”

Mr Schoen's claims come as the documentary, The Final Hours of Jeffrey Epstein is released on Fox Nation.

Questions have been raised about Epstein's death for months and Dr Michael Baden, the former chief medical examiner of New York City who was hired by the family to oversee the autopsy has previously suggested Epstein may have been murdered.

“I think the evidence points toward homicide rather than suicide,” Mr Baden said during an interview with Fox News last year, noting that some bones in Epstein’s neck were broken in a way that would suggest pressures inconsistent with a hanging."