Federal prosecutors support unsealing purported Jeffrey Epstein suicide note
Federal prosecutors on Monday sided with The New York Times, which petitioned a judge in White Plains, New York, to unseal a purported suicide note by Jeffrey Epstein.
The note is sealed as part of criminal proceedings involving Epstein’s one-time cellmate, convicted quadruple murderer Nicholas Tartaglione, who told the paper he discovered the note tucked inside a book after Epstein’s unsuccessful suicide attempt in July 2019.
The Times asked the court to unseal the note, arguing that because Tartaglione talked about it, there is nothing left to keep secret.
Federal prosecutors agreed, writing to the judge that there was no longer a compelling interest in keeping the item sealed.
“If Tartaglione has publicly discussed matters occurring in the Curcio proceedings, then his public statements constitute a waiver of the need for continued sealing as to the matters he has publicly disclosed,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton wrote in a letter Monday.
It will now be up to Judge Kenneth Karas to decide whether to allow the public to see another piece of long-concealed evidence related to the late sex offender, who hanged himself in jail in August 2019, before prosecutors could put him on trial for sex trafficking minors.
Epstein was found in his cell on July 23, 2019, "with a homemade noose fashioned around his neck," according to a Bureau of Prisons incident report.
Epstein was "lying in the fetal position on the floor of his cell wearing a t-shirt and boxers. He was breathing heavily and was snoring. ... His neck was red with no abrasions," the report said. Epstein was "determined to have sustained a circular line of erythema at the base of the neck and friction marks on the front of neck."
According to the report, at first Epstein alleged that his cellmate, Tartaglione, had tried to kill him -- an allegation he did not repeat. He later said he could not recall what happened. Tartaglione has denied attempting to harm Epstein.
Tartaglione first mentioned the existence of the purported suicide note in a podcast last year.
"It said something like 'FBI, you know, looked into me for months and found nothing.' Then he wrote, 'What do you want me to do? Cry about it?' And he was weird because he wrote a smiley face, and then he wrote 'time to say goodbye,'" Tartaglione said on the podcast.
Federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York did not know of any suicide note written by Epstein, sources familiar with the matter previously told ABC News, but a two-page chart contained in the Justice Department's Epstein files referenced it.
"Sometime between 7/23 and 7/27, NT found the note," the chart said, referencing Nicholas Tartaglione by his initials.
The chart said Tartaglione's lawyer, Bruce Barket, authenticated the note in January 2020 but did not say how.
Barket previously declined to comment on the matter to ABC News because the note is sealed.
Epstein, a wealthy financier who owned two private islands in the Virgin Islands, came under investigation for allegedly luring minor girls to his seaside home in Palm Beach, Florida, for massages that turned sexual. He served 13 months of an 18-month sentence for sex crimes charges after reaching a controversial non-prosecution agreement in 2007 with the U.S. attorney's office in Miami.
In 2019, Epstein was indicted on charges that he "sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida, among other locations," and used cash payments to recruit a "vast network of underage victims," some of whom were as young as 14 years old.
Epstein died in jail while awaiting trial on August 10, 2019. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging by the New York Medical Examiner's Office, and the Justice Department concurred with that finding.
Tartaglione was convicted in 2023 and sentenced in 2024 to four consecutive terms of life imprisonment. His appeal is currently pending before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide -- free, confidential help is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Call or text the national lifeline at 988.
