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A doable suicide word, discovered by Jeffrey Epstein’s former cellmate weeks earlier than his dying, has been hidden from the general public for almost seven years — and even the Division of Justice says it is by no means seen it, based on a report Thursday.
However the word is talked about in a “cryptic” chronology of occasions that was made public by the Justice Division as a part of its launch of the so-called Epstein Recordsdata, The New York Instances stated.
The doc has reportedly been saved in a courthouse vault since a federal decide ordered it sealed throughout a dispute between legal professionals for ex-cop Nicholas Tartaglione, who was Epstein’s cellmate in New York Metropolis’s Metropolitan Correctional Middle after the financier was arrested on baby sex-trafficking fees in July 2019.
Tartaglione, who’s serving 4 life sentences in a drug-related quadruple homicide in upstate New York, instructed the Instances he found the word between the pages of a graphic novel someday in late July 2019, following an obvious suicide try by Epstein.
The Instances stated it petitioned U.S. District Choose Kenneth Karas, who sits in White Plains, New York, Thursday to unseal the word.
The event is definite to resume hypothesis relating to Epstein’s Aug. 10, 2019, dying by hanging, which was dominated a suicide by the New York Metropolis Medical Examiner’s Workplace.
Two polls final yr discovered that round half of American adults surveyed thought that Epstein was murdered, with as few as 16% believing he died by suicide.
Throughout a collection of interviews from a federal jail in California, Tartaglione instructed the Instances that the word he discovered was written on a chunk of yellow paper from a word pad and that in it, Epstein wrote that investigators had “discovered nothing” after trying into him for months.
Tartaglione stated Epstein wrote, in essence, “What would you like me to do, bust out crying? Time to say goodbye.”
The Instances stated it could not discover the word within the DOJ’s on-line on-line repository of paperwork associated to Epstein, and a division spokeswoman instructed the Instances that it hadn’t seen the word.
The spokeswoman additionally instructed the Instances that the DOJ “underwent an exhaustive effort to gather all information in its possession,” together with from the Bureau of Prisons and the Workplace of the Inspector Normal, in response to final yr’s Epstein Recordsdata Transparency Act.
The DOJ has stated it compiled about 6 million paperwork and posted greater than almost 3.5 million on-line, with the remainder withheld as a result of these paperwork comprise baby pornography or info that is legally privileged, duplicative or unrelated to Epstein.
The word Tartaglione stated he discovered hasn’t been talked about within the official investigations into Epstein’s dying, together with a 2023 report by the DOJ’s Workplace of the Inspector Normal, which declined to remark, based on the Instances.
However the two-page timeline posted on the DOJ web site particulars occasions surrounding it between round July 23, 2019, and Jan. 5, 2020.The doc, titled “Chronology,” identifies varied people, together with Epstein and Tartaglione, by their initials.
Others talked about embody Tartaglione protection legal professionals Bruce Barket and John Wieder, based on the Instances.
Barket had the word authenticated in late 2019 or early 2020, based on the timeline. The Instances stated he declined to remark.
Karas, the decide who oversaw Tartagione’s case, ordered the word turned over to the court docket, Tartaglione and Wieder instructed the Instances.
Wieder instructed the Instances he drove the word to the courthouse in White Plains and gave it to a clerk, however did not bear in mind what it stated.
When the word apparently turned a part of a dispute between Tartaglione’s legal professionals, Karas appointed an out of doors lawyer to look into the matter and ordered all associated paperwork sealed on grounds of attorney-client privilege, based on the Instances.
The decide later disqualified Wieder from the case in a short order that cited a separate, sealed order, the Instances stated, including that Wider declined to touch upon his elimination.
A court docket spokesman declined to touch upon the existence of any sealed doc however stated such information are positioned in courthouse vaults for safekeeping, the Instances stated.
If you’re experiencing emotions of misery or are struggling to manage, you possibly can communicate to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), e mail jo@samaritans.org, or go to the Samaritans web site to search out particulars of your nearest department. If you’re based mostly within the USA, and also you or somebody wants psychological well being help proper now, name or textual content 988, or go to 988lifeline.org to entry on-line chat from the 988 Suicide and Disaster Lifeline. This can be a free, confidential disaster hotline that’s obtainable to everybody 24 hours a day, seven days per week. If you’re abroad, you possibly can go to www.befrienders.org to discover a helpline close to you
