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Unsealed note, disputed authenticity
A U.S. judge ordered the release of a document purported to be a suicide note written by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, unsealed by District Judge Kenneth Karas on Wednesday after a request from The New York Times.
“District Judge Kenneth Karas unsealed the one-page note Wednesday”
The note, which NPR said it has not independently verified, includes the line: "It is a treat to be able to choose one's time to say goodbye."
NPR reported that Epstein’s former cellmate Nicholas Tartaglione said he discovered the note while sharing a cell with Epstein at the now-closed Metropolitan Correctional Center, where the two overlapped for about two weeks in July 2019.
The Associated Press said it was unclear who wrote the note Tartaglione claimed to have found, and that it was not mentioned in lengthy government reports examining the circumstances of Epstein’s death or in the Justice Department’s recent release of files on Epstein.
The DOJ told NPR over email that the note has not yet been authenticated and that "this is the first time DOJ is seeing it as well."
Timeline of the July 2019 attempt
The note’s release is tied to Epstein’s first suspected jail suicide attempt in July 2019, when records released by the Justice Department show Epstein was found "unresponsive" in his cell on July 23, 2019.
Time Magazine reported that Epstein later claimed the same day that Tartaglione, who was awaiting trial in a quadruple murder case, had assaulted him, and that Epstein was then put on suicide watch.
NPR said Tartaglione and Epstein were awaiting their respective sentences after Epstein’s arrest on federal sex trafficking charges, and that their cohabitation ended after Epstein was found unconscious in his cell with marks on his neck in a suspected suicide attempt outlined in a 2023 Department of Justice Office of Inspector General report.
Time Magazine said Epstein was later moved to a separate cell following the alleged assault, where he was later found dead on August 10, 2019, and a medical examiner determined the cause of death was suicide.
In the note itself, the Associated Press quoted the line: "They investigated me for month -- found nothing!!!"
Legal case, public access stakes
Karas unsealed the note as part of a legal dispute in the case involving Tartaglione, and the Associated Press said federal prosecutors did not oppose the request after The New York Times asked the judge to unseal it and other documents.
““woke up and saved him by performing CPR.””
NPR reported that Tartaglione was ultimately sentenced in 2024 to four consecutive life sentences, which he is appealing, and that much of the case remains sealed though the Times asked for three other court documents to be released alongside the purported suicide note.
NPR also said Tartaglione told writer and influencer Jessica Reed Kraus in a July 2025 podcast interview that he was in the cell when Epstein allegedly tried to hang himself the first time, and "woke up and saved him by performing CPR."
The Associated Press reported that Karas said he weighed privacy interests of third parties, including Epstein, and concluded that privacy interests of a deceased person "are vastly reduced and disclosure of the deceased’s information is unlikely to ‘work a concrete harm.‘"
Time Magazine added that Judge Kenneth M. Karas released the note on Wednesday after a request from The New York Times sent on April 30, and that Democrat Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois wrote to the Justice Department on May 4 calling for it to be unsealed.
