Trump Is Already Pushing Conspiracy Theories about Jeffrey Epstein's Death

On Saturday, news broke that Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire accused of running a massive sex-trafficking ring, was found dead in his cell in Manhattan. According to Donald Trump's Justice Department, Epstein died by "apparent suicide," but that hasn't stopped endless speculation online that he was somehow murdered. As Florida congresswoman Lois Frankel, a Democrat, told NPR, "There are a lot of very powerful people who wanted to see this man dead. So was it really just a suicide? Was it just negligence by the officials who had custody of him?"

Epstein's death came a day after a cache of legal documents were made public that gave new insight into how his sex trafficking operation worked, including reportedly recruiting at least one victim at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Florida resort. The documents also included flight logs and pilot depositions that confirmed that former president Bill Clinton had traveled on Epstein's private plane.

Hours after Epstein's death was confirmed, Donald Trump retweeted conservative actor Terrence K. Williams, who wrote, "Died of SUICIDE on 24/7 SUICIDE WATCH ? Yeah right! How does that happen. #JefferyEpstein had information on Bill Clinton & now he’s dead. I see #TrumpBodyCount trending but we know who did this!"

According to the Washington Post, Epstein wasn't actually on suicide watch when he died. And, as HuffPo points out, the words "pedophilia island" don't appear anywhere in the documents. (Although the Associated Press does report that locals refer to a Caribbean island Epstein owned as "pedophile island.")

Trump also retweeted a post from an account called BLN NEWS, saying, "BREAKING: Documents were unsealed yesterday revealing that top Democrats, including Bill Clinton, took private trips to Jeffrey Epstein’s 'pedophilia island.'"

Epstein's reported suicide has inspired conspiratorial talk from many other public figures as well. Trump aide Lynne Patton posted a Daily Mail article on Epstein's death to her Instagram account, captioning it, "Hillary'd!" NBC anchor Joe Scarborough tweeted, "A guy who had information that would have destroyed rich and powerful men’s lives ends up dead in his jail cell. How predictably...Russian." Former New York mayor and current Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani also said on Twitter, "It is inconceivable Epstein could have hung himself if there was a suicide Watch? Follow the motives."

And Donald Trump Jr. took the opportunity to complain about perceived social media bias, tweeting, "Twitter allowing 'Trump Body Count' to trend while 'Clinton Body Count' has WAY more tweets (but isn’t trending) is peak Twitter."

Originally Appeared on GQ