After the FBI opened an
investigation into the death of Epstein, who was facing prosecution for sex
trafficking when he was found dead.
Two prison guards have been
suspended and a warden temporarily reassigned at the New York City jail where
Jeffrey Epstein died of suspected suicide.
The suspension, ordered by
Attorney General William Barr, came a day after he criticised the jail's
"failure".
The circumstance
surrounding the financier's death has raised questions.
It remains unclear why
Epstein was taken off suicide watch after an attempted suicide last month. He
also was supposed to have been checked in on by a guard every 30 minutes.
Before his downfall,
Epstein had previously counted many prominent rich and powerful people,
including Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, as friends.
How conspiracy theories
spread after Epstein's death
Who is Ghislaine Maxwell,
Epstein's ex-girlfriend?
What did the Department of
Justice say?
In a statement, Mr Barr
"directed the Bureau of Prisons to temporarily assign" warden Lamine
N'Diaye to a regional office, pending a full investigation.
He will be replaced by
James Petrucci, the warden of the federal prison in Otisville, New York.
Two other staff members who
were assigned to Epsteins' unit at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC)
have also been placed on leave.
"Additional actions
may be taken as the circumstances warrant," the statement added.
Epstein jail 'a gulag' in
lower Manhattan
Jeffrey Epstein: What are
his friends saying?
Who was Jeffrey Epstein?
On Tuesday, a union
official for workers at the jail told the Washington Post that one of the
guards on Epstein's unit on Saturday - when he died - was not a regular
correctional officer, but rather another form of prison employee who was
directed to operate as a guard due to staffing shortages.
Both guards working on his
unit were working overtime shifts, but it's unclear whether they were doing so
voluntarily.
The union representing
federal prison guards, the American Federation of Government Employees Council
of Prison Locals, said in a statement after Epstein's death that many guards
are forced to work overtime.
In a statement provided to
BBC News, the organisation's president Eric Young said prison employees who are
not correctional officers - such as teachers, nurses, clerical workers - are
often made to guard inmates due to a process known as "augmentation".
What has Trump said?
President Donald Trump told
reporters in New Jersey on Tuesday: "I want a full investigation, and
that's what I absolutely am demanding.
"That's what our
attorney general, our great attorney general, is doing. He's doing a full
investigation."
He also defended his
decision to retweet conspiracy theory that suggested that the Clinton family
had Epstein killed.
"He's a very highly
respected conservative pundit," Mr Trump said of comedian Terrence K
Williams, who wrote the original post.
"He's a big Trump fan.
And that was a retweet. That wasn't from me… So I think I was fine."
The order comes one day
after Mr Barr said he was "frankly angry to learn of the MCC's failure to
adequately secure this prisoner."
He added: "We will get
to the bottom of what happened and there will be accountability."
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