Epstein’s three-word "cryptic message" hours before death reportedly uncovered by journalist Michael Wolff

American author and journalist Michael Wolff has revealed late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s final "cryptic message", shared just hours before he was reportedly found dead in his jail cell. The message was transmitted via legal intermediaries, further obscuring the already controversial events that occurred surrounding the late financier's death.

Wolff, who had been in touch with Epstein and his legal team, said the exchange occurred on the Friday before the late financier's death, in an interview with Patrick Bet-David on the PBD Podcast on August 19, 2025. Back then, Wolff reportedly sent an expression of casual concern through one of Jeffrey's lawyers, and the latter's response was:

"Still hanging around"

This message reportedly came a few hours before Jeffrey was found in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York on August 10, 2019, with a bedsheet around his neck.

Michael Wolff admitted that the message was cryptic, and could also have been the late financier making a joke about previous disputed reports of him attempting to take his own life.

"It is a cryptic message, but you know...in my understanding of Epstein and how he responded to things, he was responding to the news coverage of that he had apparently tried to hang himself, but then they actually said he hadn't tried...and that was his reference to make a joke out of that which would have been very Jeffrey Epstein-like," he said.

Wolff notes this final transmission as one of the last known messages Epstein sent. He mentioned that Epstein also received special permission to make a phone call to his girlfriend at the time, Karyna Shuliak.

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Michael Wolff: Epstein pressure drives Trump's search for a "big thing"

Wolff also reported that the current pressures surrounding President Donald Trump's history with Jeffrey Epstein have become a primary destabilizing issue at the White House.

As Wolff reported for the Daily Beast podcast, the President is seeking a "big thing", a major geopolitical or domestic distraction, to distance himself from the "Epstein drumbeat." Wolff alleged that this frantic effort could lead Trump to make major concessions on Ukraine with Vladimir Putin, essentially "sacrificing Ukraine for Epstein" to satisfy a base that has become intensely obsessed with the case.

The New York City Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Epstein's death a suicide, and many people in the public have scrutinized that ruling in the years since, fueling an array of conspiracy theories.

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According to The Daily Beast, Michael Wolff's information about Jeffrey comes from his close association with him. At one point, Jeffrey asked Wolff to write a biography of him, which led to numerous interviews and communications. This level of access provided Wolff with insights into Jeffrey's world that few other reporters would ever have.