Epstein’s death brought the conspiracy theories crashing into the news cycle

When news broke over the weekend that the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his cell, the shock of the apparent suicide was soon submerged by conspiracy theories.

He was killed off by hitmen hired by the Clintons – or by the president. He was still alive, having used a body double to fake a suicide.

The indie-pop group Foster the People had an even more bizarre theory – Epstein was now on a plane to the Middle East getting prepped for plastic surgery.

The hashtags #EpsteinBodyDouble #ClintonBodyCount and #TrumpBodyCount quickly shot to the top of Twitter’s trending terms. Our readers were keen to understand exactly what happened.

In an unfortunate but unsurprising turn, the president of the US retweeted a claim linked to the conspiracy theory that Epstein had been killed because he had information about Bill Clinton.

This kind of conspiracy around the Clintons has circulated in right-wing circles since the 1990s, but since the election of Trump wild discussions once confined to a fringe minority have crept into the mainstream.

In fact, it has become a daily grind for our reporters to constantly fact check Trump’s half-baked rants and to make sure readers know where they stand on the falsehoods and unsubstantiated ramblings the president shares with his tens of millions of followers.

On the foreign desk, especially, we are constantly battling a deluge of fake news and far-fetched conspiracy theories – whether it’s a Russian man surviving in a bear’s den, or people reaching out to us convinced they’ve found Princess Diana on some far-flung island.

But the case of Epstein, I would argue, presents itself somewhat differently. Here is a case that demands serious scrutiny.

Why was a man in such a high-profile case, with what could have been a wealth of damning information of the worlds’ rich and powerful, left alone? Why were the guards assigned to him taken off suicide watch the night before? This is not the stuff of unhinged speculation, but hard questions about hard evidence.

Epstein, indeed, may end up being a useful benchmark for how journalists draw a line between the dark and malicious corners of the internet, and stories where the truth is stranger than fiction. Epstein’s 2008 plea deal – which saw the paedophile plead guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution to avoid more serious charges – was also once secret. It would surprise no one if there were more secrets in this latest twist.

And as we cover the story, it will be our job to avoid the evidence-free traps that lure in the conspiracy theorists and encourage the reckless peddlers of those conspiracies, even if they do now include the leader of the free world.

Yours,

Gemma Fox

Deputy international editor