Jeffrey Epstein
Congress is bringing Tova Noel back into the Jeffrey Epstein case as investigators revisit whether the official account of his final night can be relied on. U.S. Virgin Islands, Department of Justice, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A former prison guard who was on duty when Jeffrey Epstein died in a New York jail cell in August 2019 has been asked to testify before the House Oversight Committee in Washington on March 26, according to a source and a letter signed by chairman James Comer. The witness is Tova Noel, a former Metropolitan Correctional Center officer who was fired after Epstein's death. She is now being drawn back into a case that has never stopped attracting scrutiny.

This latest development follows the release of materials that place Noel under renewed scrutiny for her alleged actions in the hours before Epstein was found unresponsive. She allegedly searched Epstein's name online about 40 minutes before he was discovered, and her bank reportedly alerted the FBI to suspicious activity in November 2019 after 12 cash deposits were made into her account beginning in April 2018.

Death Mystery Has Returned

The immediate reason Noel is being called in appears straightforward. Comer told her in writing that, based on public reporting, Justice Department documents and material obtained by the committee, investigators believe she has information that could aid their inquiry.

The case matters because it has always hinged not only on how Epstein died but also on whether those assigned to watch him were performing their duties. Epstein, 66, allegedly died by suicide by hanging on Aug. 10, 2019 while awaiting trial on sex‑trafficking charges. He was reportedly meant to be checked every 30 minutes because he was considered a suicide risk.

Jeffrey Epstein
Photograph of Jeffrey Epstein after a possible suicide attempt. See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noel's name has lingered in the background for years, but the fresh documents described in the report bring it uncomfortably back to the surface. If the committee gets answers on March 26, it may not settle every argument around Epstein's death, but it could at least narrow one of the murkier ones, whether the official record of that night can be trusted.​

The Missing Checks

According to the report, Noel was one of two correctional officers accused of falsifying records to make it appear they had checked on Epstein during the night when, prosecutors said, they had not. A Department of Justice press release said the pair had 'repeatedly failed to complete mandated counts of prisoners under their watch' in the Special Housing Unit.

The account is more damaging in its detail than in its headline. It says the officers spent substantial parts of their shifts at a desk browsing the internet and moving around the common area rather than carrying out the required checks. Noel's computer history, according to the article, showed searches for home furniture, and the report also says she napped earlier in her shift.

Noel's own response does not entirely dispel doubt. In a 2021 deposition, she said she did not recall looking up Epstein online and stated, 'I don't remember doing that.' She also said, 'I've never worked in the Special Housing Unit and actually done rounds every 30 minutes.' The charges against her and the other guard were later dropped, but the questions that led to them remain.

Epstein Records Revive Questions Over Final Days

Newly released Justice Department documents include a psychology report in which Epstein accused his cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, a former police officer facing murder charges, of trying to kill him.​

That same report, dated July 24, 2019, recorded Epstein saying he had 'no interest in killing myself' and that it 'would be crazy' to do so. The following day, he said he was 'too vested' in fighting his case and added, 'I have a life and I want to go back to living my life.'​

Those words do not prove what happened on Aug. 10, and they certainly do not tidy up a case that remains crowded with allegation, error and unfinished argument. What they do is sharpen the stakes of Noel's expected appearance before Congress, because if the records from that night were false, the gap between what should have happened in Epstein's cell and what actually happened there becomes harder to dismiss.

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