Washington (CNN) The House Judiciary Committee is investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein at a New York jail, asking the Bureau of Prisons a host of questions about Epstein's apparent suicide.

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, and Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, the panel's top Republican, sent the Bureau of Prisons' acting director, Hugh Hurwitz, a letter on Monday with nearly two dozen questions about Epstein's confinement, his monitoring before his death and his removal from suicide watch.

The lawmakers also want information about the Bureau of Prisons' suicide prevention policies and whether they were implemented at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York where Epstein was held.

"The apparent suicide of this high-profile and -- if allegations are proven to be accurate -- particularly reprehensible individual while in the federal government's custody demonstrates severe miscarriages of or deficiencies in inmate protocol and has allowed the deceased to ultimately evade facing justice," Nadler and Collins wrote.

The House Judiciary Committee's demand for information comes as Attorney General William Barr announced Saturday that the FBI and the Justice Department's internal watchdog would investigate Epstein's death.

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