Former Epstein Cellmate Drops Bombshell About Alleged ‘Suicide’
Michael Franzese—a former Colombo family capo who served time in the same New York jail where Jeffrey Epstein died—challenged the official account on Monday night.
Speaking on NewsNation’s “Banfield,” Franzese said the Justice Department’s conclusion that Epstein’s 2019 death was a suicide simply doesn’t make sense.
“Well, listen, you know, I spent seven months on that tier and in those cells, and the first thing I have to say, there’s just no way you are able to commit suicide. There’s just no way,” he told the host.
“There’s just no way to hang yourself. There’s nothing from the ceiling; there’s nothing from the bed — you’d have to be a midget and work really hard to try to hang yourself,” he went on.
Franzese added, “And I don’t think you’re gonna accomplish it at that point. I don’t think you’d accomplish it.”
WATCH:
Former Colombo crime family caporegime, Michael Franzese, who served in the same cell as Jeffrey Epstein, says: “There’s no way you are able to commit suicide, there’s just no way, there’s nowhere to hang yourself, there’s nothing from the ceiling, there’s nothing from the bed,… pic.twitter.com/FvBtvmrD7T
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) July 15, 2025
Franzese went on to question the so-called “camera malfunction” – a ‘missing minute’ in the surveillance footage released by the Justice Department.
“You know, as far as the cameras being off, I haven’t experienced that. I did eight years in prison, and I haven’t experienced cameras being broken and a perfect storm of correctional officers not walking those cells,” Franzese, who said he did eight years behind bars, went on.
“They walk in, and they look in on you all the time,” he added. “As a matter of fact, you know, sometimes it’s embarrassing to go to the toilet because they’re walking past you and looking in the cell constantly.”
Franzese concluded, “So I’ve said this from day one, I do not believe it was suicide. I can’t talk about what happened to him, but I don’t believe it was a suicide because you just couldn’t physically do it. It would be almost impossible to do it.”
The Department of Justice said last week that it could definitively rule that Epstein took his own life, that there is no so-called “client list,” and that the department had no additional information to release – all of which angered President Trump’s MAGA base.
“After a thorough investigation, FBI investigators concluded that Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City on August 10, 2019,” the DOJ said.
Franzese addressed the DOJ’s announcement online:
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>NO!!! I am NOT HAPPY about the latest EPSTEIN announcements. CASE CLOSED??? <a href=”https://t.co/RRUDJUnydT”>pic.twitter.com/RRUDJUnydT</a></p>— Michael Franzese (@MichaelFranzese) <a href=”https://twitter.com/MichaelFranzese/status/1942861990571172147?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>July 9, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
Franzese has been outspoken in his support for President Trump, noting after he soundly defeated former Vice President Kamala Harris: “What a night. America won today.”
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) stated last week that he believes a client list tied to Epstein once existed but was “destroyed” by the Biden administration.
“I think the files existed at one time,” Burchett said in an interview on NewsNation’s “On Balance” with host Leland Vittert. “I think they were destroyed in the previous administration.”
A Justice Department memo released earlier that week determined that Epstein never maintained the purported client list used to blackmail prominent individuals, directly contradicting long-standing conspiracy theories. The memo also affirmed that Epstein died by suicide in his New York City jail cell in 2019, rejecting claims that his death was suspicious.
Burchett rejected suggestions from former Trump adviser Elon Musk and other media figures that President Trump’s name appeared on any such list.
“I think if they’d ever had anything on Trump, it would have been out Day 1 under the Biden administration,” the Tennessee Republican said.
