With billionaire Jeffrey Epstein found dead in a jail cell by apparent suicide, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough wasted no time theorizing on sex-trafficking rings or powerful pedophile clients. Instead, he brought in “the Russians.”

“A guy who had information that would have destroyed rich and powerful men’s lives ends up dead in his jail cell,” Scarborough, who was once a US Congressman for Florida, tweeted on Saturday. “How predictably...Russian.”

A guy who had information that would have destroyed rich and powerful men’s lives ends up dead in his jail cell. How predictably...Russian. — Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) August 10, 2019

Epstein had been languishing in prison since his arrest last month on child sex trafficking and conspiracy charges, and was found dead in his cell on Saturday morning, having apparently hung himself. Court documents unsealed on Friday revealed that one of his alleged victims accused him of trafficking her to a network of global politicians, businessmen and power brokers.

At no point since Epstein’s arrest has the billionaire financier been tied in any way to Russian figures. However that didn’t stop Scarborough, who often uses imagined Kremlin connections to tar his political foes. Only days ago did he christened US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “Moscow Mitch,” for his reluctance to hear Democrat-led election security legislation.

The US prison system isn't notoriously corrupt or anything... gotta be a Russian op https://t.co/Tbp9LLyglM — Michael Tracey (@mtracey) August 10, 2019

Still, the ‘Morning Joe’ host was immediately mocked for attempting to bring Russia into a completely unrelated story – and not for the first time. “Is there anything he doesn’t *wrongly* blame on Russia?” tweeted a pro-Donald Trump student group.

Billionaire pedophile Epstein died, and this celebrity "journalist" immediately blames Russia, without a scintilla of evidenceIn the new cold war TV "journos" blame foreign bogeymen for anything and don't need a shred of proof, because facts don't matterhttps://t.co/CsmAjBkI8A — Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) August 10, 2019

Now Joe Scarborough is blaming Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide on Russia...Is there anything he doesn’t *wrongly* blame on Russia? https://t.co/YTJk1ZIDoH — Students For Trump (@TrumpStudents) August 10, 2019

Whatever the day, whatever the issue, @JoeNBC can always be relied on to make an observation that reaches levels of cretinism no one had as yet reached. What is he suggesting here? That Putin whacked Epstein on behalf of Trump? Or that Trump whacked Epstein on behalf of Putin? https://t.co/1U81c8OnSu — George Szamuely (@GeorgeSzamuely) August 10, 2019

Of course, Scarborough is far from the only mainstream journalist to see Russian interference behind every news story. Nor is he even the biggest offender at MSNBC. That honor goes to primetime host Rachel Maddow, who has spent the last two years dropping unfounded collusion “bombshells” and wild accusations, including the plucked-from-thin-air theory that Russia was planning to kill Americans by flipping the switch on the US power grid, and the fabrication that the Trump campaign had officially paid for the services of “Russian hackers.”

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