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A suicide note purportedly written by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has been publicly unsealed for the first time.
The barely legible note was released by a federal judge on Wednesday, US time, following a petition by the New York Times.
Epstein’s cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, said he found the note after Epstein attempted suicide in July 2019 at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City.
The disgraced financier – who was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges – survived the attempt but was found dead in his jail cell weeks later. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging.
“They investigated for month — found nothing!!!” the note began.
“It is a treat to be able to choose one’s time to say goodbye. Watcha want me to do — Bust out cryin!!”
“NO FUN – NOT WORTH IT!!” the note concluded.
It has not been verified if Epstein wrote the note.
The note was unsealed after the New York Times published a story with a description of the note and petitioned the court in White Plains, New York, to release the document last week.
Tartaglione, a former and cop and convicted quadruple murderer told the publication he found the note – written on a piece of yellow paper ripped from a legal pad – in a graphic novel following Epstein’s suicide attempt in July. Following the incident, Epstein initially claimed Tartaglione had attacked him.
Tartaglione told the Times he gave the note to his lawyers, believing it could be helpful if Epstein continued to allege he hurt him.
Epstein admitted sex crimes in 2008 under a controversial plea agreement. The 66-year-old was arrested in July 2019 on multiple sex-trafficking charges involving the abuse of girls as young as 14, before his death on August 10.
‘Would have been fired’: Trump ally accused of Epstein cover-up
It comes as US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been accused of lying to Congress and contradicting past claims about when he severed ties with Epstein following a deposition in the investigation into the sex offender.
Mr Lutnick, a billionaire former financial executive, testified before the House Oversight Committee behind closed doors on Wednesday, US time.
The deposition centred heavily on Mr Lutnick’s previously disclosed 2012 visit to Epstein’s private Caribbean island, which came years after Epstein’s abuse was already public knowledge.
A source familiar with the Commerce Secretary’s remarks during the committee told theNew York Post Mr Lutnick “did not know” how an Epstein assistant knew he was travelling through the US Virgin Islands before he was invited the island — and found that fact “unsettling”.
Mr Lutnick and his wife, as well as four other family members docked on the island for a lunch with Epstein for around two hours, sources and politcans who interviewed him told the publication.
Mr Lutnick, who lived next to Epstein on the Upper East Side from 2005 to 2019, also told members of the committee he only met Epstein three times and didn’t have any “personal” or “professional” relationship with his neighbour, according to the New York Post, citing sources.
California Democrat Ro Khanna accused Mr Lutnick of misleading the public and suggested his testimony raised fresh questions about whether details about Epstein’s activities were being concealed.
“Now we know why that interview was not videotaped,” Mr Khanna said. “If Donald Trump had seen the video transcript, he would have fired Howard Lutnick.”
Mr Khanna said Mr Lutnick had also appeared to retreat from previous suggestions that Epstein engaged in blackmail operations involving videotapes.
“This raises a question of what the cover-up is,” Mr Khanna said
Democratic Representative Suhas Subramanyam called on Mr Lutnick to quit, telling reporters: “That was absolutely mind-boggling, what we just heard in the room. He was evasive, nervous, he was dishonest.”
Arizona Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari said politicians had questioned Mr Lutnick in “excruciating detail” about his relationship with Epstein and argued it was implausible that he had remained unaware of allegations surrounding the financier after Epstein’s 2008 plea deal on sex crime charges.
“After what we have seen so far in this transcribed interview, I feel very comfortable saying that Howard Lutnick is a pathological liar who is enabling the most egregious cover-up in American history,” said Ms Ansari.
In a podcast interview last year, Mr Lutnick recounted visiting Epstein’s Manhattan home in 2005 and said he was so disturbed that he decided he would “never be in the room with that disgusting person, ever again”.
But records later emerged showing plans in 2012 for Lutnick to meet Epstein on Little Saint James, the island often referred to as “Epstein Island”.
Mr Lutnick acknowledged during a Senate hearing earlier this year that he had visited the island with family members.
Mr Lutnick has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing and Republicans on the committee have defended the broader investigation against accusations from Democrats that it has become politically selective.
The billionaire cabinet secretary agreed in March to testify voluntarily before the committee after facing mounting scrutiny over his ties to Epstein.
– With AFP
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