Purported Epstein suicide note unsealed by US judge
A cellmate of Epstein reportedly found the note following the sex offender’s first alleged suicide attempt in July 2019
A US federal judge on Wednesday released a document described as a suicide note purportedly written by the late Jeffrey Epstein and including the line: “It is a treat to be able to choose one’s time to say goodbye”.
Epstein, the disgraced financier and accused sex trafficker, was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 in what was ruled a suicide.
The handwritten note was said to have been found by his former jail cellmate, convicted murderer and ex-police officer Nicholas Tartaglione.
US District Judge Kenneth Karas, who oversaw the Tartaglione case, released the note after a request by The New York Times, which reported its existence last week.
Karas ruled that the note qualified as a judicial document subject to the public’s right of access because it was submitted in connection with Tartaglione’s criminal case. Tartaglione is serving four consecutive life sentences for drug-related murders. Karas oversaw that case.
The judge found no legal reason to keep it under seal. But nor did he vouch for the note’s authenticity, nor assess its chain of custody. Instead he treated those issues as irrelevant to the unsealing decision.