House Oversight committee seeks interview with prison guard on duty when Epstein died
The House Oversight Committee requested testimony from one of the prison guards on duty at the Metropolitan Corrections Center in New York when Jeffrey Epstein died in August of 2019, according to a letter made public on Friday.
Tova Noel -- along with another guard Michael Thomas -- were charged in a federal indictment in November 2019 with falsifying records to make it seem as though they completed their required rounds of the Special Housing Unit, when they did not.
According to the indictment -- Noel and Thomas "repeatedly failed to complete mandated counts of prisoners under their watch" and spent substantial portions of their shifts at their desks browsing the internet.
The government alleged that, as a result of the guards' conduct, no one "conducted any count" of the prisoners in the Special Housing Unit (SHU) from approximately 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 9 until approximately 6:30 a.m. on August 10, when Epstein was found by Noel and Thomas unresponsive in his cell.
Noel and Thomas later reached a deal with prosecutors, and the case was dropped in December 2021.
The committee's letter requests Noel appear for a transcribed interview on March 26.
The recent release of Epstein files by the Justice Department has resulted in new attention on Noel and on Epstein's death, including reports that focus on:
- A series of small cash deposits -- adding up to about $12,000 -- to Noel's bank account between April 2018 and July 2019. Most of the deposits occurred before Epstein was arrested. The last one came 10 days prior to his death. Noel's bank flagged those transactions to the FBI in a suspicious activity report, which was filed a few days after Noel's federal indictment, according to recently disclosed files.
- A brief flash of orange seen on prison surveillance video in area near Epstein's cell at 10:40 p.m. the night before Epstein was discovered unresponsive with a noose made from orange cloth.
- A list of Noel's browsing history; which included internet searches for furniture, benefits websites and the "latest on Epstein in jail."
"Because of this, because of the media reports, and because of the fact that, honestly, most people on the committee aren't confident 100% that Epstein's death was by suicide, we're going to ask Ms. Noel to come in for a transcribed interview," Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer told Fox News earlier this week. "No one's accusing her of any wrongdoing, but we have a lot of questions about Epstein."
A report on Epstein's death by the Justice Department's inspector general, completed in 2023, determined that video showed at 10:40 p.m. on Aug. 9 a corrections officer "believed to be Noel" had carried linen or inmate clothing up to the tier containing Epstein's cell. That was the last time any officer approached the tier where Epstein was housed, according to the IG report.
In a sworn interview with the IG in June 2021, Noel said she "never gave out linen" and denied providing Epstein with the excess linen found in his cell when his body was discovered. She also told investigators that she did not remember searching the internet for Epstein but she may have read a news article. She said she believed she was the last person to see Epstein alive -- at around 10 p.m. on Aug. 9, according to a transcript of her interview with the IG.
Noel was not asked in the IG interview about the deposits to her account.
According to grand jury transcripts disclosed by the DOJ from the criminal case against Noel, an FBI agent testified banking records of the guards were examined, and there was no evidence that Noel or Thomas had been bribed.
ABC News has contacted attorneys who represented Noel in the criminal proceedings, but has not yet received a response.
