JEFFREY Epstein sent an astounding final text hours before he committed suicide, a famous author claims.

The disgraced paedo financier was locked inside the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York City on August 9, 2019, when he sent the shock message.

The next morning he would be dead – with conspiracy theorists speculating he was murdered to shield his rich and powerful clients.

Now, author Michael Wolff, who has produced high profile books on Donald Trump, has revealed he was in touch with Epstein before his death.

Wolff told the Daily Beast: “I believe that I got the last message from him before he died.”

“His message to me hours before this happened was – and it was just in response to me asking how he was – and he said, ‘Still hanging around.’”

Epstein’s apparent suicide joke was passed to Wolff via the billionaire’s lawyer on the evening of the 9th.

The Trump biographer said the pair first met in 2014 when Epstein asked the author if he wanted to write a book about him.

Wolff declined, but the pair evidently stayed in touch.

The author believes Epstein “could not, as described, have killed himself”.

But Wolff did not have an explanation for how they could have happened, saying “I don’t know”.

Hours after Wolff received the message, the sick criminal would be found hanged in his cell – with the medical examiner and now the FBI ruling his death as suicide.

But speculation has continued that Epstein was actually murdered after a leaked FBI memo said no client list was found.

Conspiracy theorists had speculated that Epstein kept a list of all his clients that had been to his paedo island and on his jet to blackmail them.

But a probe carried out by the Department of Justice and the FBI did not find the list – despite key figures saying it had before they joined the Trump administration.

Both Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel had said the list existed before the probe started.

Their probe found that the apparent list did not exist and that Epstein’s death had been a suicide.

As part of their evidence, they released 11 hours of CCTV footage from inside the prison.

It likely shows the last footage of Epstein alive – with the paedo being walked to his cell by a guard.

But, the footage features a missing minute between 11.58.59pm and midnight – leading to even more controversy and mystery.

Bondi explained the missing footage and said: “There was a minute that was off the counter, and what we learned from the Bureau of Prisons is every night they redo that video… every night should have the same minute missing.”

Wolff’s comments come after Epstein’s brother has insisted the paedo financier was “most likely murdered”.

Mark appeared on NewsNation on Tuesday and said he didn’t believe what the administration was saying and that Epstein had most likely been killed.

He said: “Every time they say something or do something to try to quash the fact that he was most likely murdered, they just put their foot further down their mouths.”

Mark slammed FBI Director Patel as making a “stupid” statement as he hadn’t been in the room when the autopsy was carried out.

He said: “Now, was Kash Patel in that autopsy room? No. Was Kash Patel in the prison when they found Jeffrey? No, I don’t think so, and if he was there that raises an even bigger question. When Kash Patel came out with that statement, I laughed at how stupid it was.”