Epstein bombshell leads expert to wonder if death was hoax: 'Was this all a ruse?'
A CNN legal analyst said a purported suicide note written by Jeffrey Epstein raises serious new questions — even about whether or not he's still alive.
The New York Times reported that another inmate at the Manhattan detention center where Epstein was held on sex trafficking charges claimed he found a suicide note — which has been locked inside the case file until recently.
Epstein's former cellmate, convicted quadruple murderer Nicholas Tartaglione, claimed to have found the missive in July 2019 after the disgraced financier was found with a homemade noose around his neck.
"So you have to question, right, what we call the veracity," the expert, Joey Jackson, said.
"Is it something that we could credit, the fact that he said it? That I found this note, it said 'time to say goodbye.' It had a smiley face?
"What am I going to do now? Burst out in tears? They found nothing, meaning, indicating what was on that particular note and what ends up happening in courts of law is that there's something called a chain of custody. If you want to admit anything into evidence – we're not talking about an evidentiary proceeding here, we're talking about why it's not in the files and whether it's authentic."
"It has to be authenticated, and so was it a forgery, was it not?" he added. "They were roommates for two weeks. Did he learn his patterns, right? Was he planning, Tartaglione, his cellmate, something nefarious against Epstein? So I think we have to really evaluate and question the note and its authenticity."
The purported note is potentially significant because it shows Epstein's state of mind in the days before he was found dead on August 10, 2019, in his cell.
"Remember that if it'ssomething that he penned, right, there are many conspiracytheories concerning his death," Jackson said. "Is he really alive now? Was this all a ruse? Youknow, how could you losesight of such a prisoner? Did hetake his own life? Did somebodyelse take his own life? Was hesuicidal?
"So the note mayindicate that he wanted, thatis Mr. Epstein, to take hislife. Indications are, however,that he was tellingpsychologists that 'I have everyreason to live, I want to fightthese charges, I'm entangled inmy case.'"
"So I think it goes to, what was he thinking at thetime? And whether or not heactually is dead, or maybe not," Jackson added. "There are all these theories outthere."
"CNN News Central" host John Berman quickly knocked down the suggestion that Epstein might still be alive.
"He's dead – I don't thinkthere's any question whetherhe's dead" Berman said. "The question iswhether or not it was a suicide.This may lend credence, if thenote is real, to it being asuicide."
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