WASHINGTON — A psychologist at the federal detention center in New York City where financier Jeffrey Epstein was being held while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges approved his removal from suicide watch before he killed himself, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday.

The disclosure came in a letter dated on Thursday from Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd to the Democratic chairman and ranking Republican member of the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. The letter was sent by the department to Reuters on Friday.

Epstein died on Aug. 10 in his cell, and an autopsy report concluded that he hanged himself.