Marc Fernich, an attorney for Jeffrey Epstein, issued a blistering statement on the death of his client by an apparent suicide while in federal custody at the Manhattan Correctional Center in New York City early Saturday morning. Fernich blamed prosecutors, judges, jailers, the media, politicians and “greedy plaintiff’s lawyers” for Epstein’s death, saying they have “blood on their hands.”
Marc Fernich, Fernich Law promo photo.
Fernich said he was not speaking as a member of Epstein’s defense team, but as an “outraged citizen and defense lawyer”.
The statement has been posted by numerous reporters.
UPDATE: Text version of statement typed out below by TGP for our readers:
I speak as an outraged citizen and defense lawyer, not as a representative of Jeffrey Epstein’s defense team.
There seems plenty of blame to go around for this unthinkable tragedy.
Overzealous prosecutors bent on locking up a presumptively innocent man posing no real danger or flight risk.
Pandering politicians who wrote the restrictive bail laws that empower then to do it.
Compliant judges who let them get away with it while paying lip service to the presumption of innocence.
Jailers who appear to have recklessly put Mr. Epstein in harm’s way, heedlessly placing his life at risk and failing to protect him.
An hysterical press corps clamoring to recharge Mr. Epstein with dated crimes for which he’d long since paid his debt to society under an arm’s length plea deal — just because he had the misfortune to be a wealthy man in the #metoo era whose former prosecutor happened to take a job with President Trump.
Greedy plaintiff’s lawyers who instigated and exploited the media frenzy to line their own pockets.
Breathless reporters excavating every corner of Mr. Epstein’s life to pile on, tear him down and kick him at his lowest–while still presumed innocent, before he’d had his day in court.
All these actors appear to bear some responsibility for this calamity. All seem to have a share of Mr. Epstein’s blood on their hands. All should be ashamed of their behavior.
I call for a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mr. Epstein’s death. The public needs to know exactly what happened and why — and how his custodians could have let it occur.
Marc Fernich, an attorney for Jeffrey Epstein, sends out this statement "as an outraged citizen and defense lawyer, not as a representative of Jeffrey Epstein's defense team." He is calling for a full investigation into the circumstances around Epstein's death. pic.twitter.com/rbtMQL6KHg
— Sonia Moghe (@soniamoghe) August 10, 2019
Fernich appeared in court with Epstein last month:
Day in court: Epstein entered a not guilty plea to charges of sex trafficking on Monday in federal court, for his alleged sexual abuse of three minors (l to r: Martin Weinberg, Epstein, and Marc Fernich) pic.twitter.com/2D9eojrwrU
— Darlington Micah (@DarlingtonMicah) July 11, 2019
