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Comment by 542458 | Hacker News Reader

This is not the head pathologist who performed the autopsy or anything. This is an pathologist hired by Epstein's family who is notable for saying dramatic things in an apparent attempt to get news time:

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/michael-brown-shooting/who...

Furthermore, there's nothing new here - all of this was known months ago. The damage in question - Baden's smoking gun - is not uncommon in suicides either.

(Edit: this comment formerly claimed that Baden wasn't at the autopsy. This appears to be incorrect - he was there, but not on the medical team.)

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From the article:

> Dr. Michael Baden, one of the world’s leading forensic pathologists, viewed Jeffrey Epstein’s body and was present at the autopsy, which was held the day after Epstein was found dead at the notorious Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Manhattan.

It looks like he was at least present at the autopsy

You're right, I was incorrect there - I was confused because he wasn't on the medical team for the autopsy. Looks like he was there as an observer, being paid by Epstein's family - which also introduces a fairly significant conflict of interest.

Why is it a massive conflict of interest from the family side but not from the state side (their pathologists)?

Presumably they both care about careers and reputation.

Sort of. The family's hired pathologist is retired. I'm sure he cares about reputation for personal reasons, but it's not like his career is riding on it.

(... and thanks to the power of conspiracy theories, he's now got a cemented reputation forever among some circles).

The state pathologists keep getting paid no matter what their conclusions were.

Epsiein's family pathologist only gets paid as long as he's involved in the investigation. If he said "Yep, looks like a suicide", the family would have no further use for him. But if he discovers some conspiracy that will take an indefinite amount of time to deal with, he keeps collecting paychecks. Also, this fellow seems to thrive on fame, so even more incentive to find something juicy.

> The state pathologists keep getting paid no matter what their conclusions were.

Naive.

What does a career or reputation matter when there's billions of dollars floating around, and you can quietly disappear to a fully funded retirement (out of all the spotlights of course) fifteen minutes after you make whatever statement is required of you?

Not that I think there's any sort of attempts at influencing the story here...

Ok here's a question to chew on. Why would the Epstein family pay to have a pathologist of their own be present? That has to be unusual?

Either: They want the truth or they want to distort the truth.

In the first case: Why don't they trust the state?

In the second: Why do they want to falsely make it to look like a murder?

That is not a conflict of interest in any way, shape, or form.

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