In a startling development, a doctor who observed the autopsy of Jeffrey Epstein has suggested that the disgraced financier was strangled, rather than hanged, in his New York prison cell.

Dr. Michael Baden, a renowned pathologist, has urged for a renewed investigation into Epstein’s death. This call comes nearly seven years after Epstein was discovered unresponsive on August 10, 2019, at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

Dr. Baden expressed skepticism about the official ruling by the New York Medical Examiner’s Office, which classified Epstein’s death as a suicide while he was awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking.

The pathologist, who was retained by Epstein’s estate, shared his perspective with The Telegraph, stating, “In my opinion, his death was more likely the result of strangulation rather than hanging.”

Dr. Baden further emphasized the need for additional scrutiny into the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death, saying, “Considering all the available information, a further investigation into the cause and manner of death is justified.”

Although Dr. Baden did not conduct the autopsy himself, he was present as an observer during the procedure, representing the interests of Epstein’s family.

‘At the time that the autopsy was done by the medical examiner, we both agreed that, on the basis of the autopsy report and the information available, more information was needed to determine the cause and manner of death,’ Dr Baden said. 

Following the release of more than three million documents related to the late sex offender by the US Department of Jusice (DOJ), more questions have been raised about the nature of Epstein’s death. 

Buried deep in the latest tranche of files is never-before-seen footage revealing the moment prison guards found the paedophile’s corpse. 

A video shows the outline of a prison guard approaching a desk near Epstein’s cell at 6.30am on the day of his death. Just 10 seconds later, the person then makes his way to the cell.

A little over a minute after this, a guard can be seen moving back and forth between the security desk, where he is shortly joined by two others, and the area housing Epstein’s cell.

The guards are then seen running between the two areas. Epstein was officially declared dead at 6.39am, abruptly halting one of the most closely watched federal criminal cases in recent memory.

But according to newly-released files, investigators noticed an orange shape moving up a staircase towards the financier’s cell on the night of his death.

Officials from the FBI and the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) flagged the suspicious CCTV footage, which may have been ‘an inmate’ walking up to the floor the notorious paedophile was being held on.

A report, from the OIG, noted that at 10.39pm on August 9, 2019, FBI agents observed that ‘a flash of orange looks to be going up the L Tier stairs – could possibly be an inmate escorted up to that Tier’. 

Further documents reveal that authorities were in dispute about the cause of the unexplained ‘orange flash’.

While the FBI suspected it was another inmate, the Inspector General wrote: ‘Inmates are currently on lockdown, it is possible someone is carrying inmate linen or bedding up.’ 

The final report by the Inspector General stated: ‘At approximately 10.39pm, an unidentified CO [correctional officer] appeared to walk up the L Tier stairway, and then reappeared within view of the camera at 10.41pm.’ 

The analysis from the two investigative bodies contradicts public statements made by at least two top US officials.

Bill Barr, who was the US attorney general during Trump’s first term, claimed in a 2019 interview that he had personally reviewed security footage that confirmed that no one entered the area where Epstein was housed on the night he died.

And last May, former deputy director of the FBI Dan Bongino told Fox News: ‘There’s video clear as day. He’s the only person in there and the only person coming out. You can see it.’

He added shortly before the release of the video last August: ‘We are working on cleaning it up to make sure you have an enhanced [version] and we’re going to give the original so you don’t think there were any shenanigans.’

In light of new information, Dr Baden is pushing for further examination into the financier’s cause of death.

In December, a censored version of Epstein’s post mortem examination was published as part of the DOJ’s first release of the so-called Epstein files.

On the document, the serial sex offender’s ‘manner of death’ is marked as ‘pending’, while boxes for homicide and suicide are left blank. 

According to Dr Baden, his professional findings following the post mortem on August 11, 2019 were ‘inconclusive’.

Epstein’s death certificate was then published pending further investigation of the cause, he claimed. 

But five days later, this decision was allegedly ‘superseded’ by Dr Barbara Sampson, New York’s then-chief medical examiner.

She ruled that the financier died by hanging, and the manner was suicide. 

She was not present at the post mortem, Dr Baden claimed.

At the time, Dr Sampson publicly dismissed Dr Baden’s theory about strangulation, saying she stands ‘firmly’ behind her conclusion. 

The paedophile’s lawyers, meanwhile, said they were ‘not satisfied’ with the medical examiner’s findings, and said they shared Dr Baden’s concerns.

‘I have not seen any evidence of further study, nothing that indicated further investigation into the cause of death,’ Dr Baden, 92, said, adding that Dr Sampson’s ruling was just ‘accepted’.

‘The diagnosis was made a number of days after the first cause of death given,’ he added.

In abnormal or highly suspicious scenarios, it can sometimes take weeks or even months to determine a final cause of death. 

The pathologist was one of the first people to raise alarm following the ruling, telling Fox News in 2019: ‘The evidence points toward homicide rather than suicide.’

‘That was my opinion at that time, and I still stand by it,’ he told The Telegraph in a recent interview.

‘The autopsy findings are much more consistent with a crushing injury caused by homicidal strangulation than caused by hanging by suicide.’

Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s justice department and the FBI have both stated that Epstein took his own life and that there is no evidence indicating he was murdered in his cell.

According to the official post mortem, three distinct fractures were identified on the financier’s neck: one on the left hyoid and one in the thyroid cartilage on the right side, and one on the left.

The 92-year-old said he has never seen hanging by suicide with three neck fractures throughout the 50 years he spent reviewing post mortem reports for prisoner deaths in all New York state and local jails. 

‘Even one fracture, we have to investigate the possibility of a homicide. Two definitely warrant a full investigation,’ he said. ‘Findings in textbooks never see those fractures, and neither have I.’

But Dr Sampson disagrees with this, claiming that fractures of the hyoid bone and the cartilage feature in both suicides and homicides. 

Discrepancies found in the three million files related to the disgraced financier released on January 30 have further fuelled speculation surrounding Epstein’s cause of death.

For example, a federal statement announcing his death surfaced in the newly released documents, but it carries a date that appears to precede the moment he was officially found dead inside his New York prison cell.

The document, issued by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and dated Friday, August 9, 2019, states that Epstein had already been found unresponsive and pronounced dead.

But prison records and official accounts show Epstein was not discovered unresponsive until the morning of August 10, 2019, when a corrections officer delivering breakfast found him in his cell.

The financier’s death came amid a cascade of failures inside one of the federal government’s most secure detention facilities.

Prison records show that guards assigned to monitor Epstein did not conduct required checks during the overnight hours before his body was discovered.

Scheduled rounds at 3am and 5am were missed, according to official findings.

Furthermore, cameras positioned outside Epstein’s cell were not functioning properly that night.

Investigators later confirmed that at least two surveillance cameras had malfunctioned, leaving critical gaps in visual monitoring of the area.

Because of those failures, officials were unable to establish a definitive timeline of Epstein’s final moments.

According to an official report, a noose made out of an orange bedsheet discovered in the cell was later determined not to be used in Epstein’s death.

Dr Baden claimed he noticed this fact during the post mortem and was worried at the time that the ‘noose didn’t match the [injury]’.

‘It wasn’t smooth like the sheet, the markings [on Epstein’s neck] would have required a different type of material,’ he said. 

He also alleged that critical evidence was lost because of mistakes made by officials in the handling of Epstein’s body.

‘[They] moved the body, guards refused to say how the body was found, and he was moved to the infirmary,’ he said, which he claims is a ‘highly unusual’ chain of events.

Most crucially, Dr Baden says, Epstein’s time of death was ‘lost’.

To this day, no precise official time of death has been determined. 

Epstein, 66, had been held at the Manhattan jail since his arrest on July 6, 2019, after federal prosecutors charged him with sex trafficking minors and conspiracy. 

He pleaded not guilty and was awaiting trial when he died in custody just over a month later.

According to official accounts of the morning of August 10, Epstein was discovered unresponsive and medical personnel attempted to revive him, but he was pronounced dead soon afterward.