Overview
- U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Karas unsealed the document Wednesday after a petition by The New York Times, finding it a judicial record with no basis for continued sealing as Manhattan prosecutors did not oppose release.
- The handwritten note, placed on the court docket, is unsigned and undated and includes lines such as “They investigated me for months — FOUND NOTHING!!!” and “It is a treat to be able to choose one’s time to say goodbye.”
- Nicholas Tartaglione, Epstein’s onetime cellmate, says he found the note in July 2019 tucked inside a graphic novel after Epstein’s first apparent suicide attempt in their shared cell, then gave it to his lawyers and it was filed under seal in his case.
- The Justice Department told the court it does not know whether the note is legitimate and said it had not previously seen it, and court filings describe Tartaglione’s lawyers as having “authenticated” it without explaining how.
- The note was absent from the millions of pages of Epstein-related records released earlier this year, and its disclosure revives scrutiny of Epstein’s 2019 jail death ruled a suicide and of documented jail lapses such as missed checks and guards sleeping.