Federal Judge Unseals Note Attributed to Jeffrey Epstein

A federal judge unsealed a note purportedly written by Jeffrey Epstein that his former cellmate said he discovered after the financier was found with a strip of bedsheet around his neck in a Manhattan federal jail cell on July 23, 2019. The note was made public Wednesday after The New York Times requested its release from court files connected to the cellmate’s unrelated criminal case.

Federal prosecutors did not oppose the request.

The New York Times has not authenticated that Epstein wrote the note. The cellmate, a former police officer serving a life sentence for killing four people, claimed he found the note inside a graphic novel in their shared cell. He first publicly mentioned the note last year on a podcast.

The note was submitted as evidence in his criminal case and remained sealed for years amid a dispute over his legal representation. ” the note reads in part.

“They investigated me for months — FOUND NOTHING!!! It is a treat to be able to choose one’s time to say goodbye.”

The incident on July 23, 2019, occurred about three weeks before Epstein was found dead in his cell on Aug. 10, 2019, in what authorities concluded was a suicide. Jail records show Epstein had friction marks and skin irritation on his neck after the first incident.

Officers described him as breathing heavily but responsive. One officer reported at the time that Epstein said he believed his cellmate had tried to kill him. Jail officials placed him on suicide watch for 31 hours before downgrading his status to psychiatric observation.

Epstein denied trying to harm himself, telling a psychologist that suicide was against his Jewish religion and that he was a “coward” who didn’t like pain. The two men had shared a cell for about two weeks after Epstein’s arrest on July 6, 2019, on sex trafficking charges.

The cellmate was awaiting trial on charges that he killed four men in 2016. Both were interviewed by jail personnel on July 31, 2019. Epstein said he had never had any issues with his cellmate, wasn’t threatened by him and didn’t want to make up something that wasn’t there.

The cellmate said they kept conversations to a minimum and that on July 23 he thought Epstein was having a heart attack. The note was not mentioned in lengthy government reports examining the circumstances of Epstein’s death, nor did it surface in the Justice Department’s recent release of files on the financier.

Officials said they found a separate handwritten note in Epstein’s cell at the time of his death that appeared to be a list of grievances about jail conditions rather than a suicide note.

“It wasn’t mentioned in the lengthy government reports examining the circumstances of Epstein’s death, nor did it surface in the Justice Department’s recent release of files on the late financier.”

In ordering the release, the judge weighed the privacy interests of third parties, including Epstein, and concluded that privacy interests of a deceased person are vastly reduced. The cellmate is currently incarcerated at a federal penitentiary in California and has petitioned President Donald Trump for a pardon.

Epstein was alone in his cell when he died. Authorities have cited a series of missteps by jail personnel, including failure to perform required checks, as factors that allowed the suicide to occur. This story includes discussion of suicide. org.