New York Times best-selling author and populist conservative columnist Ann Coulter says all federal prisons should be privatized after disgraced billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender and accused sex trafficker, allegedly committed suicide in his prison cell.

Last month, Epstein was arrested and charged for allegedly operating a sex trafficking ring of underage girls that were brought to his Palm Beach, Florida, residence, as well as his private Caribbean island. After spending only about a month in prison while awaiting trial, officials announced on Saturday, August 10, that Epstein died of an apparent suicide in the federal government’s Manhattan Correctional Center (MCC).

In exclusive comments to Breitbart News, Coulter said in the wake of Epstein’s death that all federal prisons should be privatized and detailed the multiple questions surrounding the alleged suicide.

“The litany of alleged prison ‘screw-ups’ is mindboggling: He was taken off ‘suicide watch’ after a couple of weeks, the guards were tired from overtime and didn’t check on him every 15 minutes — not even every 30 minutes,” Coulter told Breitbart News. “According to some reports, the guards were called off three hours before his ‘suicide’ for scheduled maintenance … at 3 am [on] Sunday morning.”

“All federal prisons should be privatized after this,” Coulter continued. She speculated on some possible scenarios: “The government can tell us either that ‘This was a scheme by Epstein’s powerful backers to silence him and government workers were paid off to assist in the murder, here are their names,’ or they can tell us, ‘We’re utterly, laughably incompetent at our most basic responsibilities’ — but it can’t tell us both. Produce the conspirators or privatize the prisons.”

Coulter, more than two weeks before Epstein’s death in his cell, called for the accused billionaire to be moved to a maximum security prison to ensure his safety:

“Note that my job isn’t to oversee federal prisoners, and yet I knew what was coming,” Coulter alleged.

Columnist Mickey Kaus also speculated that a “conspiracy to silence Epstein” was “the only bipartisan initiative of 2019” and thus his federal incarceration should be closely monitored.

Epstein, who allegedly had dozens of sexual encounters with underage girls and trafficked them out to his wealthy global clientele of elite friends, was not on suicide watch at the time of his death, officials told the New York Post.

Likewise, sources told Reuters that prison guards skipped mandatory checks on Epstein the night of his alleged suicide.

Attorney General William Barr said on Monday the Department of Justice (DOJ) will investigate Epstein’s alleged suicide and the “serious irregularities” at the MCC.

“I was appalled … and frankly angry to learn of the MCC’s failure to adequately secure this prisoner,” Barr said. “We are now learning of serious irregularities at this facility that are deeply concerning and demand a thorough investigation. The FBI and the Office of Inspector General are doing just that. We will get to the bottom of what happened.”

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.