"Jeffrey Epstein... was supposed to have been checked by guards every 30 minutes, but that procedure was not being followed the night before he was found [dead]..."

"... a law-enforcement official with knowledge of his detention said. In addition, the jail had transferred his cellmate and allowed Mr. Epstein to be housed alone in a cell just two weeks after he had been taken off suicide watch, a decision that also violated the jail’s normal procedure, two officials said. The disclosures about apparent failures in Mr. Epstein’s detention at the Metropolitan Correctional Center deepened questions about his suicide and are very likely to be the focus of inquiries by the Justice Department and the F.B.I.... The federal Bureau of Prisons has already come under intense criticism for not keeping Mr. Epstein under a suicide watch after he had been found in his cell on July 23 with injuries that suggested that he had tried to kill himself. A person with knowledge of the investigation said that when the decision was made to remove Mr. Epstein from suicide watch, the jail informed the Justice Department that Mr. Epstein would have a cellmate and that a guard 'would look into his cell' every 30 minutes. But that was apparently not done, the person said.... Mr. Epstein’s suicide has also unleashed a torrent of unfounded conspiracy theories online, with people suggesting, without evidence, that Mr. Epstein was killed to keep him from incriminating others...."

The NYT reports this morning in "Epstein Was Left Alone and Not Closely Monitored Before Jail Suicide/The disclosures about apparent failures in Jeffrey Epstein’s detention deepened the questions about his suicide."

Are the conspiracy theories "unfounded"? I've noticed that the NYT seems to be trying to squelch any doubt that Epstein killed himself (and killed himself without any support/encouragement from anyone else). There are no comments allowed on this new article, and I noticed that an earlier NYT article about the Epstein death had a lot of comments, and the highly rated ones doubted that it was suicide.

Compare The Washington Post, where the top headline on the home page is: "Questions mount over Epstein’s apparent suicide." The NYT doesn't have "apparent" before suicide and doesn't use a generic, conspiracy-supporting phrase like "Questions mount." The NYT directs us to think that the questions should be about prison procedures and overworked prison staff.

If you click through on the WaPo front-page teaser, the headline is: "Jeffrey Epstein dead after ‘apparent suicide’ in New York." Excerpt:

Last month, Epstein was found in his cell with marks around his neck, and authorities were trying to determine whether he was attacked or attempted suicide. A person familiar with the matter said Epstein was placed on suicide watch — which meant he was subject to near constant monitoring and daily psychiatric evaluations — after that. But he was taken off suicide watch after about a week, this person said. He showed no obvious signs of distress at a July 31 court hearing and, in recent weeks, had been meeting with his lawyers for up to 12 hours a day to discuss his case, the person said.

People close to Epstein, noting that he seemed recently to be in good spirits, were surprised by reports of suicide, according to one person familiar with their discussions Saturday, and expressed concern about the possibility of foul play. His attorneys are seeking to learn from authorities how Epstein’s body was found and how such an incident could have happened, this person said....

Epstein’s death comes less than 24 hours after a court unsealed a huge cache of records, laying out disturbing details about Epstein’s alleged activities and the people in his orbit who might have observed them....

WaPo doesn't say the conspiracy theories are "unfounded." It makes me feel that the conspiracy theories are at least a little well-founded. In fact, the NYT's eagerness to squelch conspiracy ideas and its omission of "apparent" before suicide make me feel more suspicious of the idea that it was nothing but a suicide.

BUT: WaPo doesn't like conspiracy-thinking coming from Trump. There's "Trump retweets conspiracy theory tying Clintons to Epstein’s death."

The corresponding story in the NYT is: "Trump Shares Unfounded Fringe Theory About Epstein and Clintons." There's that word "unfounded" again.