FBI agents received a tip a few days after Jeffrey Epstein died in federal custody.
Reports from the Miami Herald on Saturday revealed that “bags” of documents were being shredded and thrown away at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. This warning came while federal authorities were still looking into the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death on Aug. 10, 2019.
The report stated that an FBI form summarizing a call on Aug. 16, 2019, indicated that a corrections officer named Michael Kearins informed the bureau’s Threat Operations Center. Kearins said an after-action team at the jail was shredding large amounts of paperwork.
He found this suspicious since FBI personnel and other agencies were already on-site. The report added that the shredded material was being tossed into a dumpster set for pickup the following Monday morning.
Another officer reportedly reached out to the FBI on Aug. 19 about an unusual amount of shredded material being taken from the jail. Further, one inmate claimed he had been asked to help move boxes of documents. He also heard someone say, “They are shredding everything.” Mediaite, citing the Herald’s reporting, mentioned that bags of documents were being thrown away behind the jail.
An FBI intake report from 2019 says an MCC officer saw bags of shredded documents being taken out after Epstein’s death, with inmates helping move them during an active investigation. https://t.co/LjaG4l8Yr1 pic.twitter.com/1HnD30WNof
— grizzy (@Furbeti) March 21, 2026
An assistant federal prosecutor later noted in an email that investigators were looking into whether anyone tried to obstruct justice by destroying records after Epstein’s death. The email mentioned that institutional count slips from before Aug. 10, 2019, which had been requested by investigators on Aug. 12, were missing. The Herald reported that the inspector general’s office later interviewed the inmate and Kearins, but the case was eventually closed.
Epstein was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges when he died at the Manhattan jail on Aug. 10, 2019. A medical examiner in New York City ruled his death a suicide by hanging. According to Reuters, two jail guards, Tova Noel and Michael Thomas, faced accusations of failing to monitor Epstein and falsifying records. In 2021, federal prosecutors ended the criminal case after the guards complied with deferred prosecution agreements.
A 2023 report from the Justice Department’s watchdog found that a mix of negligence, misconduct, and failures by Bureau of Prisons staff allowed Epstein to take his own life. The Associated Press reported that Epstein had been left alone in his cell despite a prior suicide attempt, and required monitoring procedures were not followed.
“A total of 12 deposits had been received, culminating in the largest one for $5,000 eleven days before [Epstein] died… Here’s what’s really weird: She didn’t start working in the special housing until July 7, 2019– weeks before his death.”
Megyn breaks down the bombshell… pic.twitter.com/GGVS3pjE1H
— The Megyn Kelly Show (@MegynKellyShow) March 11, 2026
The new report comes as scrutiny of Epstein-related records has resurfaced in Washington. Reuters and the AP reported this week that the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify about how the Justice Department handled Epstein’s files and document releases. This dispute has renewed attention on how the government managed records related to the case, including those connected to Epstein’s death in custody.
The Justice Department has not announced any charges related to the alleged shredding mentioned in the Miami Herald report. However, the newly revealed FBI tip adds another detail to the ongoing questions about what occurred inside the jail in the days following Epstein’s death.
