Overview
- U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Karas in White Plains unsealed the note Wednesday after The New York Times asked the court to make it public, and Manhattan federal prosecutors did not oppose the release.
- The short handwritten note 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,” ending with “NO FUN — NOT WORTH IT!!”
- Epstein’s former cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, says he found the note tucked in a graphic novel in July 2019 after Epstein was discovered with a strip of cloth around his neck during an earlier jail incident, and he later gave it to his lawyers.
- The document is undated and unsigned, the judge made no findings about who wrote it or how it was handled, and the Justice Department says it had never seen the note and did not include it in the Epstein records released this year.
- The court unsealed the filing after finding Tartaglione had waived privilege by discussing it publicly, adding a new primary-source item to long-running scrutiny of Epstein’s Aug. 10, 2019 jail suicide and the documented lapses at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, such as missed checks and broken cameras.