>John Mark Dougan, a former Palm Beach County Deputy Sheriff, told our team that he’s certain Epstein was murdered—and he knows why.
>“I don’t believe for one minute it was suicide,” he said.
>The world’s intelligence agencies couldn’t risk the chance of Epstein’s blackmail files ever going public, Dougan claims. Those files are explosive, and he knows. Because he has them.
>Dougan served as a Deputy Sheriff in Palm Beach at the time Epstein was in prison after securing his secret plea deal. Now, he lives in Russia, where he has been granted political asylum.
>Epstein’s prison time “was an absolute shitshow,” Dougan told author James Robertson from the dark streets of Moscow. “I’ll tell you why. He was able to leave jail basically anytime he wanted. Right? This is really unheard of.
>“But he was able to leave jail as long as he had two deputies go with him on an overtime detail. They were paid as an overtime detail. Now, overtime detail, this is Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, by contract are selected out of a random pool. This was different. These deputies that would go with him were handpicked by the sheriff. And there were guys specifically who would look the other way while he was bringing underage girls into his office and into his home. Unbelievable.”
>Palm Beach Police Detective Joseph Recarey had run the initial investigation into Epstein’s crimes. But once in prison, the case was under the jurisdiction of the Sheriffs. Dougan says Recarey gave him full access to everything he knew about the infamous inmate.
>“We basically had the entire case file,” he said. According to Dougan, Recarey also gave him materials that were not in the “official” filings as well.