qwant news | Prison Guards Were Googling Jeffrey Epstein Just Before He Was Found Dead, Files Say
Financier, pedophile and convicted sex‑trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on August 10, 2019. Six years later, newly released Department of Justice files show that the two guards assigned to his Special Housing Unit – Tova Noel and Michael Thomas – were supposed to check on Epstein every thirty minutes, but the logs indicate an eight‑hour gap with no documented checks. Both guards were later charged with falsifying those logs, pleaded guilty, and received no jail time in exchange for cooperating with an Inspector General review. The files also reveal that, less than an hour before Epstein was discovered hanging, Noel’s computer recorded a Google search for “latest on Epstein in jail,” sandwiched between unrelated queries about furniture and law‑enforcement discounts. When questioned in a 2021 interview, Noel flatly denied making that search.
The released documents further expose suspicious financial activity tied to Noel. JP Morgan Chase filed a Suspicious Activity Report with the FBI in November 2019 after detecting twelve cash deposits she made between April 2018 and July 2019, the largest being $5,000 on July 30, 2019—just two weeks before Epstein’s death. Noel was never asked about these deposits during her 2021 interview, and investigators have not publicly pursued the matter. In addition, the files note that Epstein possessed extra clothing and linens in his cell—items normally prohibited for inmates on suicide watch—raising questions about how they got there, since Noel claimed she didn’t supply them.
Congressional investigators are now pressing the House Oversight Committee to summon Noel for testimony, hoping her answers will clarify the unanswered details surrounding Epstein’s final hours. The committee’s focus includes the Google search, the unexplained cash deposits, and the “moving orange flash” video captured that night, as well as broader security failures at the MDC, such as malfunctioning cameras and a half‑closed prison that has remained shuttered since 2021. While the new evidence fuels further speculation and conspiracy theories, it also provides a concrete avenue for lawmakers to seek a clearer account of how a man with vast wealth and powerful connections died behind bars.
Read more:
https://www.jezebel.com/epstein-death-files-prison-guards-tova-noel-googling-suspicious-deposits-bribes-testimony-congress
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