Judge Unseals Epstein Note After Former Cellmate Publicly Discussed It

A federal judge in White Plains, New York, unsealed a note tied to Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 jail suicide attempt after federal prosecutors backed its release, saying continued sealing was no longer justified once his former cellmate had discussed it publicly.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas released the note on May 6, 2026, ending a seal that had kept the document locked away as part of criminal proceedings involving Nicholas Tartaglione, Epstein’s former cellmate and a convicted quadruple murderer. Tartaglione said he found the note in July 2019 tucked inside a book, and prosecutors argued that his public comments removed the need to keep it hidden from the public record.

The note sits in the narrow timeline between Epstein’s failed suicide attempt on July 23, 2019, and his death in jail in August 2019 before he could stand trial. According to the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General, Epstein was found semiconscious in his cell with an orange cloth around his neck and friction marks on his neck after the July attempt. He had been arrested that same month on federal sex-trafficking charges involving the alleged abuse of girls as young as 14.

Even with the note now public, its significance remains limited by a central fact: it has not been authenticated. That means the document adds to the paper trail surrounding Epstein’s final weeks, but it does not by itself settle who wrote it, what it meant, or how much weight investigators, courts or the public should give it. What the release does change is the transparency of the record. A document once kept in a courthouse vault for nearly five years is now part of the evidence available for scrutiny as the case continues to shape public debate over Epstein’s detention, his death and the handling of related federal records.