US judge releases Jeffrey Epstein's purported suicide note

Warning: this story contains content which some readers might find distressing

A US judge has ordered the release of a document purported to be a suicide note written by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein a month before his death.

A copy of the handwritten note unsealed on Wednesday mentions a months-long investigation that "found nothing", and says "it is a treat to be able to choose one's time to say goodbye".

Epstein's former cellmate claims he found the note tucked into a book after Epstein tried to kill himself in July 2019. Epstein was found dead in his cell a month later.

The BBC has not verified that the note was written by Epstein, and US authorities have not commented.

His death, which was ruled a suicide by authorities, came as he awaited a sex-trafficking trial.

The purported note was placed under seal as part of criminal proceedings involving the former cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, who was being held in the cell at the time while awaiting trial for four murders.

Tartaglione is a former police officer convicted of quadruple murder who was at one point accused by Epstein of attacking him, which he denied. He first mentioned the note's existence last year on a podcast.

A scan of the note in the court document unsealed on Tuesday shows a handwritten sentence saying, "They investigated me for month - FOUND NOTHING!!!", and mentioned years-old charges.

"It is a treat to be able to choose one's time to say goodbye," the note says.

"Watcha want me to do - Bust out cryin!!" it continues. "NO FUN - NOT WORTH IT."

The note amounts to only seven lines of text, leaving uncertainty over its purported meaning.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) did not immediately respond to the BBC's request for comment.

A DOJ spokesperson previously told NBC News in a statement that the department had not seen the note. They highlighted the DOJ's "exhaustive effort" in collecting and publicly releasing millions of other Epstein-related files in recent months.

The note was accompanied by a May 2021 letter submitted to the court by John A Wieder, a former lawyer for Tartaglione. The lawyer described the note as "the original document" that federal Judge Kenneth M Karas ordered be provided to the court at that time.

The New York Times had petitioned the judge in White Plains, New York, to unseal the note, arguing there was no need to keep it secret. The newspaper was also seeking other documents that the judge did not rule on.

Federal prosecutors have also pushed for the note to be released, saying that there was no longer a compelling interest in keeping it under seal and that Tartaglione's public statements about the note "constitute a waiver of the need for continued sealing".

In his order unsealing the note on Wednesday, Judge Karas concluded that the note "is subject to the presumption of public access".

"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 added that the court agrees that Tartaglione's repeated public discussion of the note's contents "constitutes waiver of the attorney-client privilege as to the document" and that sealing is not justified on that basis.

Security failures at the prison on the night of Epstein's death were identified in a federal report and there has been a constant stream of speculation about how he died.