by Jane C. Timm and Liz Johnstone, NBC News:

President Donald Trump retweeted a conspiracy theory on Saturday evening alleging without evidence that former President Bill Clinton was connected to the death of wealthy financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, hours after Epstein was found dead by apparent suicide in his federal prison cell.

“Died of SUICIDE on 24/7 SUICIDE WATCH ? Yeah right! How does that happen,” wrote Terrence K. Williams, a conservative commentator and comedian, in the message retweeted by Trump. In a two-minute long selfie video recording, Williams alleged that the Clintons were responsible for Epstein’s death.

Epstein was not on suicide watch at the time of his death, multiple people familiar with the investigation have told NBC News.

Died of SUICIDE on 24/7 SUICIDE WATCH ? Yeah right! How does that happen#JefferyEpstein had information on Bill Clinton & now he’s dead

I see #TrumpBodyCount trending but we know who did this!

RT if you’re not Surprised#EpsteinSuicide #ClintonBodyCount #ClintonCrimeFamily pic.twitter.com/Y9tGAWaAxX

— Terrence K. Williams (@w_terrence) August 10, 2019

The stoking of conspiracy theories about his political rivals is nothing new for the president: he made a political name for himself championing false claim that President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States, and has also suggested Clinton White House aide Vince Foster’s suicide was “very fishy” in 2016. But the tweets also notably cast suspicions on his own Justice Department.

In the video, Williams alleged that for Epstein to die by suicide “somebody not doing their job, or somebody got paid not to do — not to do their job, so somebody can get knocked off, so information don’t come out.”

Epstein died in a federal prison, and the FBI is investigating the death. Attorney William Barr said he was “appalled” by the news and called for an internal probe as well.

In the tweet, which falsely claims that Epstein was on suicide watch in the prison at the time of his death, Williams includes a two-minute selfie video apparently filming claiming vindication in predicting Epstein’s death. He also tied it to the 1994 suicide of White House aide Vince Foster that conspiracy theorists have long blamed on the Clintons, seeming to suggest Epstein and Foster’s deaths were both murdered by the Clintons.

There is no evidence Foster’s death was anything other than a suicide. The Washington Post reported in 2016, when Trump pushed the conspiracy theory during the campaign, that there were five official investigations into Foster’s death, conducted by professional investigators, forensic experts, psychologists, doctors and independent prosecutors with unlimited resources; none found evidence of foul play.

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