In an angry tirade when Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) questioned Attorney General William Barr on Tuesday, the Democrat accused Barr of having allowed notorious sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein to commit suicide.
Cohen seemingly had a conniption during the hearing, launching into a heated storm of accusations. While discussing the alleged abuses of federal law enforcement amid violent riots in Portland, Cohen spewed, “You’ve gone through the Fifth Amendment and due process and just negated it.”
“Maybe what happened was your secret police were poorly trained, just like your Bureau of Prisons guards were poorly trained, and allowed the most notorious inmate in our nation’s last several years, Jeffrey Epstein, to commit suicide. SAD!”
.@RepCohen blames AG Barr for Jeffrey Epstein’s death pic.twitter.com/qJY0VtyLNs
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 28, 2020
Following Epstein’s death, Barr removed the acting director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Hugh Hurwitz, and replaced him with Kathleen Hawk Sawyer.
Barr called the events that preceded the death of Jeffrey Epstein “a perfect storm of screwups.” The two prison guards who were on duty the night Epstein died — 31-year-old Tova Noel and 41-year-old Michael Thomas — are under investigation. Both guards dozed off for two hours, according to a surveillance video.
Barr immediately launched an investigation into the suspicious death.
Cohen leveled his accusation amid a House Judiciary Committee hearing during which Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) accused Barr of using federal officers as a political “prop” to reelect President Donald Trump.
Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.