Derek Chauvin stabbing sparks Jeffrey Epstein-inspired theory

The stabbing of the former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in federal prison on Friday has sparked conspiracy theories among several right-wing voices online, citing false claims about the death of George Floyd and comparing the situation to the death of Jeffrey Epstein.

In May 2020, Chauvin killed Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, by kneeling on his neck for nine minutes during a confrontation. The incident sparked massive nationwide protests calling for police reform and racial equality, and later led to Chauvin’s firing from the Minneapolis police force. A year later, he was convicted of charges related to Floyd’s death and sentenced to more than 22 years in prison.

On Friday, the Associated Press reported that Chauvin he had been stabbed by a fellow inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona. The Bureau of Prisons confirmed only that an inmate had been assaulted at 12:30 local time and had left in a serious condition. “Life-saving measures” were applied to the inmate, who was then taken to a hospital for treatment. The inmate’s current condition is still unknown.

Newsweek The Bureau of Prisons was contacted by email for comment.

In reaction to the news, several voices from the right on X, the platform formerly known as a Twitter, a new conspiracy began to circulate that Chauvin’s reported attack was a deliberate move to silence him. In spreading the theory, users cited a widely debunked claim, once spread by predecessors Fox News host Tucker Carlson, that Chauvin was not responsible for Floyd’s death, but that he had died of drug-induced conditions. The claim was also based on the debunked narrative that Floyd’s official autopsy was tampered with, which it was not.

Newsweek denied those claims in a fact-check last month. Although the autopsy noted that Floyd had a certain amount of fentanyl and other illicit drugs in his system, they were not found to have contributed to his death. While it also noted that he had not suffered “life-threatening injuries,” Floyd’s death was attributed to “cardiopulmonary arrest” from “law enforcement subdualization, restraint and compression of the neck,” and it was ultimately ruled a homicide.

“Tucker Carlson Oct 20: Derek Chauvin Did Not Murder George Floyd. A month after this newly released toxicology report confirmed Floyd’s overdose death, Derek Chauvin was nearly Epsteined!” posted by user X who goes by “Eddie”. “Chauvin’s stabbing was also only a few days later [the Supreme Court] denied his appeal request.”

“My God, they gave Chauvin access to other prisoners, after he killed black Jesus? You still believe Epstein didn’t kill himself?” Richard Hanania, president of the right-wing think tank Center for Study of Partisanship and Ideology (CPSI), wrote in his own message. “The federal prison system is run by incompetents chosen for diversity.”

“They’re trying Epstein #DerekChauvin because the feds tampered with the autopsy and can’t hide it anymore,” user “Salty Texan” wrote. “Derek Chauvin is an innocent man.”

Many of the users who spread the conspiracy have alluded to the death of Epstein, the convicted sex offender convicted of running a sex trafficking ring in which he provided underage girls to several high-profile individuals.

Epstein died in prison in July 2019 with the official cause is suicide by hanging. Despite this, numerous conspiracy theories, popular across the political spectrum, claim that he was actually murdered in an effort to prevent him from naming any of his famous clients. Although many are widely accepted as fact, the theories have never been proven.