A federal judge in New York on Wednesday unsealed a handwritten note purportedly written by Jeffrey Epstein in July 2019, weeks before his death in a Manhattan jail cell.
The note was released at the request of the New York Times, according to the court order from Judge Kenneth Karas of the Southern District of New York.
The note, scrawled on lined paper, contains phrases 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." Epstein’s former cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, claimed to have found the note.
The note's release adds another layer to the public's understanding of Epstein's state of mind in his final weeks, though it does little to resolve the widespread speculation surrounding his death, which the New York City medical examiner ruled a suicide.
The note was reportedly discovered by Nicholas Tartaglione, a former police officer who briefly shared a cell with Epstein, on July 23, 2019. Tartaglione said he found the note after Epstein was found semiconscious in their cell with a strip of cloth around his neck. Epstein survived that incident and was placed on suicide watch.
Tartaglione, who was facing murder charges and is now serving multiple life sentences, gave the note to his lawyers. The document became part of a legal dispute among Tartaglione's attorneys and was sealed by Judge Karas to protect attorney-client privilege before the New York Times petitioned for its release.
Epstein was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on August 10, 2019. While the city's medical examiner determined the cause of death to be suicide by hanging, security lapses at the jail, including malfunctioning cameras and sleeping guards, have fueled theories that he may have been murdered.
The Justice Department has not officially verified the handwriting as Epstein's, and the note was not included in the department's publicly released files from its investigation. The release of the document provides a new piece of primary evidence from the period between Epstein's first apparent suicide attempt and his death, but does not settle the broader questions about the circumstances of his demise.
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