The death of Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier and convicted sex offender, occurred on August 10, 2019. Guards claimed to have found Epstein unresponsive in his jail cell at 6:30 a.m. at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, hanging off the side of his cell's bed, where he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. After prison guards reportedly performed CPR, he was transported in cardiac arrest to the New York Downtown Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:39 am. The New York City medical examiner and the Justice Department Inspector General ruled that Epstein's death was a suicide by hanging. Epstein's lawyers challenged the medical examiner's conclusion and opened their own investigation, hiring pathologist Michael Baden.