Overview
- The New York Times, which petitioned the court Thursday, asked a federal judge to unseal a note purportedly written by Jeffrey Epstein that has been locked in a New York courthouse for nearly seven years.
- Epstein’s former cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, says he found the handwritten note in July 2019 tucked in a graphic novel, recalling lines that included “Time to say goodbye” and “What do you want me to do, bust out crying?”.
- A two-page Justice Department chronology says Tartaglione’s lawyers twice tried to authenticate the note in late July 2019, and that it was later authenticated by early 2020, though the records do not show who verified it or how.
- Judge Kenneth Karas ordered the document sealed during disputes among Tartaglione’s lawyers, placing the note in a courthouse vault in White Plains under secure storage.
- The Justice Department says it has not seen the note, which does not appear in its public Epstein files or the inspector general’s 2023 review, a gap now drawing scrutiny as the GAO reviews how the department collected and released Epstein records.