Trump impeachment lawyer says he doesn’t believe Epstein committed suicide

Last minute addition to ex-president's legal team details theory about convicted sex offender's death

Jeffrey Epstein did not commit suicide in prison, according to Donald Trump’s impeachment lawyer, David Schoen.

The lawyer, who was appointed by Mr Trump on Sunday, made the comments in an email to Newsweek after the announcement and said they were not “anything to do with a conspiracy theory."

Both the FBI and Justice Department have investigated the death, But the suggestion by Mr Scohen that Epstein did not commit suicide adds to several conspiracies about the death.

While a New York coroner ruled that they were “confident” Epstein died by suicide, several procedural errors on the day the convicted sex offender died have been the source of several alternative theories.

The errors, which included two allegedly malfunctioning security cameras outside his prison cell, led some to theorise that Esptein was murdered, with the meme “Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself” shared on social media.

Mr Scohen, who was asked by Esptein to represent him at the upcoming trial for his convictions, told Newsweek there two main reasons why he did not believe Epstein died by suicide.

Epstein, according to the lawyer, had appeared "animated and energised” when they met nine days before his death, and so he did not believe the death was suicide, as widely alleged.

Another reason, Mr Scholen said, was that a second autopsy carried out at the request of Epstein’s brother, “pointed to homicide rather than suicide” - a claim that was disputed by the New York coroner.

Although Mr Schoen did not agree to represent Epstein before his death, he was told "that on August 9, Epstein remained animated and gave every indication he was planning to fight the case vigorously as we had discussed. On August 10th he was dead."

"So my first reason for believing it was not suicide is based simply on the anecdotal evidence from my own observations in meeting with him and from reports I received throughout the week," said the lawyer.

Discussing the second autopsy, which was carried out Dr Michael Baden, Mr Schoen alleged that the private coroner “concluded that in thousands of autopsies he had performed he never saw injuries like Epstein's consistent with suicide."

"That strikes me as a powerful assessment that cannot be discounted," Mr Schoen added.

According to Newsweek, while the lawyer has made similar remarks in the past, Mr Schoen had not previously provided as much detail about his theory, and meetings with Epstein in August 2019. 

He also claimed in an interview with Fox News on Monday that Mr Trump had “noting to do with” the Capitol riot on 6 January. He is due to represent the former president when the impeachment trial begins on 8 February, and replaces several lawyers who resigned from Mr Trump’s team on Sunday. 

Epstein, who was 66 when he was found dead in his prison cell, was awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy.