Special Interest Glance
The federal investigation into the death of convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was marred by significant lapses, experts told CBS News, including the failure by investigators to interview potential witnesses, properly preserve certain evidence and run basic forensic tests.
Nearly two years passed before investigators interviewed the two key corrections officers on duty the night Epstein died in his cell in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown New York City, in what was later ruled a suicide, according to court documents. One of those officers was the only person to attest to seeing Epstein hanging by a bedsheet from his bunk.
And details pulled from 90 photos of the cell and other evidence collected in the hours after Epstein's death — but before FBI agents arrived to process the scene — appear to show a succession of basic oversights, ranging from an absence of evidence markers to items being moved, experts told CBS News.
"The FBI literally has all of the best tools. I mean, spared no expense. They have every tool you can imagine. And they used none of it as far as we can tell," forensic analyst Nick Barreiro said after reviewing the photos, many of which have never been published. "How are there not way more people pointing out the absurdity of this?"
A federal judge will not immediately block national guard troops from being deployed in Illinois after a lawsuit from the state against the president on Monday.
Several prominent MAGA names appear in a small batch of Epstein files released Friday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
We apologize to all our viewers for the technical problems that interrupted our reporting of the important news stories of the past few days.
The Library of Congress has announced Arthur Sze as the 25th U.S. poet laureate. Sze has had a decades-long career as a poet, with his work often drawing inspiration from philosophy, science and nature. He's also an editor and translator of poetry. Sze will start on Oct. 9, taking over from Ada Limón.
