Legal expert spots buried detail in Epstein's reported suicide note

A legal expert on Thursday revealed a potential pattern in the newly released alleged Epstein suicide note and described why it was something to consider.

Lisa Rubin, MS NOW senior legal reporter, told MS NOW anchor Katie Tur that there could be a buried detail found in the note discovered by Nicholas Tartaglione, Jeffrey Epstein's cellmate in 2019. Tartaglione, who is now serving four consecutive life sentences for a quadruple homicide, says he discovered it after Epstein's alleged suicide attempt in July 2019 and gave it to one of his lawyers.

"There was then a conflict between his lawyers and specifically the judge, examining multiple issues about a conflict of interest between and among his lawyers," Rubin said. "One of the issues was how this note was handled by Tartaglione and his lawyers. It then came into the court's possession in Tartaglione's criminal case in 2021."

It was sealed until Wednesday, she explained. And after examining it, Rubin said it raises some serious questions.

"But let's talk about what we know about the note and whether or not we have any reason to believe it could be legitimate," Rubin said. "We don't have any authentication of the note, and we don't know whether this is Epstein's handwriting, as you noted. However, some of the wording that's been used here mimics wording that Epstein has used in other contexts."

Rubin pointed to previous emails between Epstein, his brother and friends, "where he uses the exact same phrase, spelled a little bit differently."

"What do you want me to do, bust out crying? He says that, for example, in response to his brother upon news that somebody in their family had become a grandfather, he also, in a note that was discovered in his cell, published by '60 Minutes' six years ago, uses the same phrase 'NO FUN' in all caps with the same number of exclamation points," Rubin said. "People have pointed to both of those online to say, this is a note that seems like it could be written by Jeffrey Epstein, but again, we have no reason to know whether it is or is not authentic. The judge here has asked the parties, in Mr. Tartaglione's case to redact some additional filings that could shed some light on how this came to be, and hopefully we'll learn more next week."