A former corrections officer who was working the night time Jeffrey Epstein was discovered useless instructed the Home Oversight Committee that her life has been derailed by threats and conspiracy theories suggesting she had a task in facilitating or protecting up Epstein’s dying, in response to a transcript of the interview launched this week.
Tova Noel — who was initially charged with falsifying data throughout her shift that night time — denied having any function in Epstein’s dying and blamed among the issues that got here to mild after the suicide on the “dysfunctional tradition” at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Heart.
“My accountability to conduct counts and rounds was improperly executed due to extreme understaffing, an absence of satisfactory coaching, insufficient communication between administration and frontline correctional officers, and different systemic failures,” Noel stated in her testimony, describing her actions because the “MCC Approach.”
WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 18: Former jail guard Tova Noel (C) returns from a break from testifying at a closed-door interview with the Home Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill on Might 18, 2026, in Washington, DC. Noel, a former guard on the Metropolitan Correctional Heart in New York Metropolis, is believed to have been among the many final folks to see convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein earlier than his dying in 2019.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Photos
Noel and one other jail guard have been accused in November 2019 of falsifying data to make it appear as in the event that they accomplished their rounds that night time, whereas they spent most of their shifts at their desks looking the web. Prosecutors stated that due to their alleged conduct, nobody checked on the inmates in MCC’s Particular Housing Unit for eight hours, till after they discovered Epstein unresponsive in his cell.
Each Noel — who served within the Nationwide Guard together with throughout Operation Enduring Freedom in Kuwait — and the opposite guard ending up reaching offers with prosecutors and their circumstances have been dropped in December 2021.
In her opening assertion to lawmakers, she acknowledged that she submitted documentation to make it appear as if rounds and counts have been finished; however she stated it was finished at first of the shift and stated the falsification of the data was not in any method associated to Epstein’s dying and was not an try and cowl up.
Noel instructed lawmakers thought the case being dropped could be the tip of her affiliation with Epstein.
“I believed that I might be capable to privately rebuild my life and profession. As an alternative, I’ve constantly been the topic of threats to my life, conspiracy theories, and outrageous rumors, impacting my psychological and bodily well being,” Noel stated, in response to the transcript. “I’ve obtained threats from strangers. I’ve witnessed strangers preach about whether or not I am a assassin or that I will find yourself useless. I’m constantly harassed at my residence, place of employment, in emails, and on the telephone. Each few weeks, there is a new article based mostly on a brand new principle with little to no factual foundation.”
Epstein died in jail whereas awaiting trial on August 10, 2019. His dying was dominated a suicide by hanging by the New York Medical Examiner’s Workplace, and the Justice Division concurred with that discovering.
A 2023 DOJ inspector basic report detailed a number of failures whereas Epstein was within the custody of the Bureau of Prisons however concluded he died by suicide and that foul play was not potential.
The conspiracy theories flared up earlier this yr when paperwork launched by the Division of Justice included supplies from Noel’s prison case, together with the web searches she made that night time and a collection of monetary transactions flagged by her financial institution as suspicious.
Requested about each these supplies, Noel pushed again on any allegations she was concerned in Epstein’s dying and sought to clarify them as coincidences.
View of Metropolitan Correctional Heart the place accused intercourse trafficker Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide on August 10, 2019.
Pacific Press/LightRocket by way of Getty Photos
Requested a few looking historical past exhibiting that she searched “newest on Epstein in jail” lower than an hour earlier than he was discovered useless, Noel stated she was looking for furnishings on-line and was interested by one of many inmates underneath her supervision.
“Like, if I see it on the homepage, I click on on it and browse it. However so far as performing a bodily search, I do not recall doing that,” she stated, in response to the transcript.
A lot of the deposits to her checking account predated Epstein’s arrest. One got here 10 days earlier than his dying.
Requested about these transactions, Noel stated she deposited the cash herself.
“The supply of the cash that, as I discussed earlier, has nothing do with Epstein, anybody associated to Epstein, concerned with Epstein. Nobody has ever approached, supplied, requested. Something that is regarding my cash has nothing to go along with Epstein in any respect. It is solely me and my private financial savings,” she stated.
Noel additionally denied understanding something about an unexplained temporary flash of orange seen on the surveillance digital camera close to Epstein’s cell the night time earlier than he was discovered useless.
On this picture offered by the New York State Intercourse Offender Registry, Jeffrey Epstein has his photograph taken March 28, 2017.
AP
The character of the orange flash stays a thriller to today, and Noel stated the timing of the orange flash doesn’t align with when she did her rely that night time.
“To be very sincere, I do not know what it’s, who it’s. As a result of I by no means went again to the tier, and I used to be by no means carrying something orange in any respect, and I by no means issued something orange to anybody within the SHU — not simply solely Epstein, simply anybody,” she stated, in response to the transcript.
Noel instructed lawmakers that MCC suffered a number of “systemic failures” — together with persistent understaffing and insufficient coaching — and that she was by no means correctly skilled to work within the unit the place Epstein was positioned.
Acknowledging the errors she made that night time when Epstein died, Noel implored lawmakers that she want to transfer on and not be related to the disgraced intercourse offender.
“I want to ask the world to permit me to heal and transfer on with my life. I am not a prison. I did not conspire to trigger Mr. Epstein’s dying. It’s my want to be left alone in spite of everything of right this moment’s interview,” Noel stated.
