EXCLUSIVE: Family of Bill Clinton advisor was found hanging from a tree with a shotgun blast at a ranch 30 miles from his home

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T

• Top Clinton advisor Mark Middleton died by suicide at the age of 59 on May 7, the Perry County Sheriff's Office in Arkansas confirmed 
• Middleton was President Bill Clinton's special advisor who admitted Jeffrey Epstein to the White House seven of the at least 17 times the pedophile visited
• The married father-of-two, who lived in Little Rock, Arkansas, shot himself at the Heifer Ranch in Perryville, 30 miles away from his home
• DailyMail.com can now reveal Middleton's father Larry and his widow Rhea are fighting to keep photos and 'other illustrative content' of his death sealed 
• The two filed for an injunction arguing that blocking the release of the footage would halt a proliferation of 'unsubstantiated conspiracy theories'
• The lawsuit claims the family 'has been harassed by outlandish, hurtful, unsupported and offensive online articles' regarding Middleton and his death  
• Perry County Sheriff Scott Montgomery said Middleton was discovered hanging from a tree with a shotgun blast to his chest
• After the petition was filed, Montgomery denied DailyMail.com's FOIA request for any of his paperwork on the case 

The family of a top advisor to   Bill Clinton   who admitted   Jeffrey Epstein   to the   White House   multiple times during his presidency is pulling out all the stops to keep details of his mysterious death becoming public.

They have petitioned a judge to prevent pictures of Mark Middleton's death scene being released under the Freedom of Information Act.

And now the local   Arkansas   sheriff is interpreting that to mean he can't talk or release any details of Middleton's May 7 suicide.

'The investigation is still open. I can't say anything more,' Perry County Sheriff Scott Montgomery told DailyMail.com. 

Middleton, who served as special assistant to President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, died at the age of 59, his family announced last month. 

His death adds to the number of close associates of the former president and first lady who have died unexpectedly, many in small plane crashes. The phenomenon has led to a conspiracy theory called Clinton Body Count which even has its own Wikipedia page.

Middleton's family did not disclose the cause of death at the time but authorities later confirmed the former White House official took his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot at an urban farm in Perryville, Arkansas.

In a lawsuit filed on May 23, the family admits Middleton committed suicide, and says they have 'a privacy interest' in preventing any 'photographs, videos, sketches (or) other illustrative content' from the death scene being released.

They claim it would lead to 'outlandish, hurtful, unsupported and offensive articles' being published online.

They argued that keeping the footage and files sealed would halt a proliferation of 'unsubstantiated conspiracy theories'.

A judge is due to hear the case on June 14. 

After the petition was filed, Perry County Sheriff Scott Montgomery denied DailyMail.com's FOIA request for any of his paperwork on the case, which would include the police report and written files, even though they do not contain any graphic images.

Late last year, DailyMail.com exclusively  revealed  Middleton was among the Clinton advisors and aides who had let Epstein into the White House during the former president's first few years in office. 

The late pedophile made at least 17 trips to the White House between 1993 and 1995, seven of which were authorized by Middleton. 

The Clinton aide was also one of the many passengers to fly on Epstein's jet, known as the 'Lolita Express'.

Middleton's family last month confirmed he passed away on May 7 in a statement which did not reveal the cause of death.

It has since been confirmed that the former advisor, who lived in Little Rock,   Arkansas , took his own life at the Heifer Ranch in Perryville, owned by an anti-poverty nonprofit called Heifer International, 30 miles away from his home. 

Chris Cox Heifer, a spokesman for Heifer International, said that ranch workers found Middleton's car in the parking lot and notified the sheriff.

The body was found shortly afterwards.

Heifer told DailyMail.com: 'He wasn't invited to the property and staff became aware that he was there without authorization.

'We have not found any connection to Heifer.

'The ranch is well known in the area and it's possible that he could have attended something here but we couldn't' find any major links.

'The ranch hosts school groups for things like lambing so he could have attended one of those. It's a very unfortunate incident.'

In an interview with RadarOnline – before he decided to clam up – Sheriff Montgomery said Middleton was discovered hanging from a tree with a shotgun blast to his chest.

He reportedly used an extension cord as a noose and created makeshift gallows underneath the tree which appeared to be there as a failsafe in case the shotgun blast didn't kill him.

The married father-of-two, who ran an air conditioning business, did not leave a note, though he told his family he was 'depressed', Montgomery said. 

'I don't know the man, and I don't why he picked our county or picked that location to commit suicide. To our knowledge, he had never been there before, and we have no record of him being there before.

'He died from a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the chest. He found a tree and he pulled a table over there, and he got on that table, and he took an extension cord and put it around a limb, put it around his neck and he shot himself in the chest with a shotgun.

'It was very evident that the shotgun worked because there was not a lot of blood or anything on the scene. You can tell the shotgun blast was on his chest, you can tell that because there is a hole in the chest and pellets came out the back of his back. It was definitely self-inflicted in our opinion'.

The injunction was filed two weeks after Middleton's death at the circuit court of Perry County by Rhea Middleton and Larry Middleton, Middleton's widow and father.

It states that they have a 'privacy interest in photographs, videos, sketches and other illustrative content depicting Mark Middleton's body or scene of Mr. Middleton's death' in the possession of the Perry County Sheriff and the county coroner. 

The lawsuit states: 'Since Mr. Middleton's death, Mr. Middleton's family has been harassed by outlandish, hurtful, unsupported and offensive online articles regarding Mr. Middleton, his death and his family. These articles are scurrilous, baseless and malicious'.

Publishing images of Middleton's body would cause the family 'irreparable harm', they claim.

'This lawsuit seeks a declaration that any Media Content depicting Mr. Middleton's body or scene of Mr. Middleton's death should not be disclosed under the FOIA,' the documents state. 

In an affidavit, Larry Middleton states that the reports about his son's death have been 'unsubstantiated conspiracy theories' which have caused 'unimaginable pain to myself and my family'.

He claims to have 'extreme fear and anxiety' at the prospect of further details being made public.

Larry Middleton writes: 'Once disclosed, my family will face inconceivable amounts of harassment, threats and pain from the inquiry and use of such content'.

The Middletons did not respond to DailyMail.com requests for comment.

Documents from Middleton's probate file show that he had $200,000 in assets, including $100,000 worth of property.

The lawsuit confirms that Middleton died by suicide, something that was not mentioned in the announcement of his death in a Facebook post – now deleted – for the family's air conditioning company, Middleton Heat & Air.