Overview
- U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Karas unsealed the handwritten document Wednesday in the case of Epstein’s former cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, after a petition by the New York Times that federal prosecutors did not oppose.
- The note is undated and unsigned, and the court did not assess authenticity or chain of custody; the Justice Department said it had never seen the document and it was not in the millions of pages of Epstein files released earlier this year.
- Tartaglione said he found the paper tucked inside a graphic novel after Epstein’s July 2019 jail incident, then gave it to his lawyers, and filings show it was later sealed in a dispute over attorney‑client privilege.
- A court image shows lines including “They investigated me for month — FOUND NOTHING!!!,” “It is a treat to be able to choose one’s time to say goodbye,” and a closing of “NO FUN — NOT WORTH IT!!”
- Epstein died in August 2019 in Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center, which officials ruled a suicide, and documented lapses such as missed cell checks and camera problems have fueled continuing scrutiny of how evidence in the case was handled.