Nearly seven years after disgraced convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein died in federal custody ahead of his pending sex trafficking trial, a federal judge has ordered the public release of a short, handwritten document long claimed to be an unsigned suicide note left by Epstein.
The document, which was unsealed Wednesday following a legal push from media organizations and federal prosecutors, runs just seven lines. It claims that a months-long investigation into Epstein’s activities uncovered no evidence of wrongdoing, with the writer stating: “They investigated me for month – FOUND NOTHING!!!” The note also reflects a fatalistic acceptance of impending death, writing that “it is a treat to be able to choose one’s time to say goodbye,” and concludes with “NO FUN – NOT WORTH IT.”
The origin of the document traces back to an alleged 2019 suicide attempt by Epstein, one month before he was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell. Nicholas Tartaglione, a former New York police officer who was Epstein’s cellmate at the time and is currently convicted of four counts of murder, has claimed he found the note tucked into a book in the shared cell after the attempt. Tartaglione first publicly revealed the note’s existence during a podcast appearance in 2023, and the document had been placed under seal as part of Tartaglione’s ongoing criminal proceedings.
Multiple independent outlets including the BBC have not been able to independently verify that Epstein actually wrote the note, and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has not issued any official confirmation of its authenticity. When contacted by the BBC for comment on the unsealing, the DOJ did not immediately issue a response. A DOJ spokesperson previously told NBC News that department officials had not examined the note, noting that the agency has already undertaken “exhaustive effort” to declassify and release millions of pages of other court records tied to the Epstein case in recent months.
The push to unseal the document was led by The New York Times, which filed a formal petition to Judge Kenneth M. Karas, the federal judge overseeing the case in White Plains, New York, arguing that there was no legitimate legal justification to keep the note hidden from public view. Federal prosecutors also backed the release, arguing that Tartaglione’s repeated public comments about the note eliminated any need to maintain its sealed status, and that these disclosures constituted a formal waiver of any privilege that would justify continued sealing.
In his written order approving the unsealing, Judge Karas ruled that the document is subject to the longstanding legal presumption of public access to court records. “The Court comfortably concludes that public access to the Note promotes ‘a measure of accountability’ as well as ensures that the public will ‘have confidence in the administration of justice,’” Karas wrote. He also agreed that Tartaglione’s ongoing public discussion of the note waived any attorney-client privilege that could have protected the document from release, leaving no legal basis to keep it sealed.
Epstein’s 2019 death, which official investigations ruled a suicide, has been the source of widespread public speculation and conspiracy theories ever since it occurred. A federal investigation after his death confirmed multiple serious security failures at the federal correctional facility where he was being held on the night of his death, and lingering questions about the circumstances of his death have kept public interest in the case alive for years. The release of this note is unlikely to resolve those open questions, as its brevity and unconfirmed origin leave its meaning and authenticity open to interpretation.