The New York Times said it petitioned a federal judge to unseal a suicide note written by disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The note was purportedly written by Epstein when he first unsuccessfully tried to take his own life. It was found by his cellmate Nicholas Tartaglione, who recalled the note said it was “time to say goodbye.”
The note was sealed as part of the cellmate’s own criminal case, meaning federal investigators did not have access to it after his death.
The Times said the note was not a part of the tranche of files the Department of Justice has released related to the sexual predator. The DOJ was forced to release millions of files related to Epstein after a bipartisan law was passed late last year.
Tartaglione recalled that after Epstein had attempted suicide in July, 2019, he was moved to a different part of the jail and placed on suicide watch. Tartaglione said that he found the note in his cell, placed inside a graphic novel.
“I opened the book to read, and there it was,” Tartaglione said, revealing that he found a note written on yellow paper ripped from a legal pad.
He claimed that the note from Epstein said something along the lines of: “What do you want me to do, bust out crying? Time to say goodbye.”
Tartaglione, now serving time for a quadruple homicide, said he handed the note to his lawyers at the time, believing it could bolster his defense if Epstein accused him of trying to harm him.
The Times reported that one document in the Epstein files explains how Epstein’s supposed suicide note became intertwined with Tartaglione’s own legal case. It says that Tartaglione’s attorneys authenticated that the suicide note was written by Epstein, but did not reveal how.
The circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death, which was officially ruled a suicide, have given way to several conspiracy theories.
Epstein is believed to have killed himself sometime between 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 9, 2019, and when his body was found the next day, around 6:30 a.m.
At the time of Epstein’s death, then-Attorney General William Barr said he was “appalled” to learn of Epstein’s death while in federal custody, and said it raised “serious questions that must be answered.”
The apparent suicide note was not mentioned in official investigations into Epstein’s death, including a report in 2023 from the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General.
The Trump administration has been embroiled in controversy surrounding Epstein for much of President Donald Trump’s second term.
Trump, who enjoyed a decades-long friendship with Epstein, has claimed the files are a “Democrat hoax” and told his MAGA base to “move on” from the Epstein scandal.
