Unsealed Epstein Note: New Light on Final Weeks

0:00It's May 2nd. This is U.S. News Today, U.S. News powered by AI. The New York Times just asked the federal judge to unseal a supposed suicide note from Jeffrey Epstein, hidden in a New York courthouse for almost seven years. This note dates back to July 2019, right after Epstein was found in his Manhattan jail cell with a strip of cloth around his neck. He survived that scare, but died by suicide a few weeks later, while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. His cellmate at the time discovered the note tucked inside a book, a yellow piece of legal paper, with lines like asking what he was supposed to do. Bust out crying and saying it was time to say goodbye. The Times couldn't find it in the millions of documents the Department of Justice released last year under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Even the DOJ says they never had it despite searching everywhere, including prison records. That first incident highlighted massive security failures at the jail, and Epstein's death at age 66 sparked endless questions because of his.

1:01Ties to big names. The note got tangled in legal fights among the cellmate's lawyers, leading a judge to seal it after authentication early in 2020. It never showed up in the DOJ's 2023 report on the death, which stuck with the suicide ruling. Meanwhile, earlier this week, the government accountability office announced a review of how the DOJ handled those Epstein files. This comes after senators from both parties complained the DOJ broke the law by redacting names of powerful people while claiming to protect victims. If this note ever sees daylight, it could shed fresh light on Epstein's mindset in those final weeks, keeping the scrutiny alive on one of the biggest. Restories in recent history.