A former corrections officer who was working the evening Jeffrey Epstein was discovered useless advised the Home Oversight Committee that her life has been derailed by threats and conspiracy theories suggesting she had a task in facilitating or masking up Epstein’s dying, based on a transcript of the interview launched this week.
Tova Noel — who was initially charged with falsifying data throughout her shift that evening — denied having any position in Epstein’s dying and blamed a few of the issues that got here to mild after the suicide on the “dysfunctional tradition” at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Heart.
“My accountability to conduct counts and rounds was improperly executed due to extreme understaffing, an absence of sufficient coaching, insufficient communication between administration and frontline correctional officers, and different systemic failures,” Noel mentioned in her testimony, describing her actions because the “MCC Method.”
WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 18: Former jail guard Tova Noel (C) returns from a break from testifying at a closed-door interview with the Home Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill on Might 18, 2026, in Washington, DC. Noel, a former guard on the Metropolitan Correctional Heart in New York Metropolis, is believed to have been among the many final folks to see convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein earlier than his dying in 2019.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Photos
Noel and one other jail guard had been accused in November 2019 of falsifying data to make it appear as in the event that they accomplished their rounds that evening, whereas they spent most of their shifts at their desks looking the web. Prosecutors mentioned that due to their alleged conduct, nobody checked on the inmates in MCC’s Particular Housing Unit for eight hours, till once they discovered Epstein unresponsive in his cell.
Each Noel — who served within the Nationwide Guard together with throughout Operation Enduring Freedom in Kuwait — and the opposite guard ending up reaching offers with prosecutors and their instances had been dropped in December 2021.
In her opening assertion to lawmakers, she acknowledged that she submitted documentation to make it appear as if rounds and counts had been achieved; however she mentioned it was achieved initially of the shift and mentioned the falsification of the data was not in any means associated to Epstein’s dying and was not an try to cowl up.
Noel advised lawmakers thought the case being dropped could be the tip of her affiliation with Epstein.
“I assumed that I’d have the ability to privately rebuild my life and profession. As an alternative, I’ve constantly been the topic of threats to my life, conspiracy theories, and outrageous rumors, impacting my psychological and bodily well being,” Noel mentioned, based on the transcript. “I’ve obtained threats from strangers. I’ve witnessed strangers preach about whether or not I am a assassin or that I will find yourself useless. I’m constantly harassed at my residence, place of employment, in emails, and on the cellphone. Each few weeks, there is a new article primarily based on a brand new principle with little to no factual foundation.”
Epstein died in jail whereas awaiting trial on August 10, 2019. His dying was dominated a suicide by hanging by the New York Medical Examiner’s Workplace, and the Justice Division concurred with that discovering.
A 2023 DOJ inspector general report detailed a number of failures whereas Epstein was within the custody of the Bureau of Prisons however concluded he died by suicide and that foul play was not potential.
The conspiracy theories flared up earlier this 12 months when paperwork launched by the Division of Justice included supplies from Noel’s legal case, together with the web searches she made that evening and a collection of monetary transactions flagged by her financial institution as suspicious.
Requested about each these supplies, Noel pushed again on any allegations she was concerned in Epstein’s dying and sought to clarify them as coincidences.
View of Metropolitan Correctional Heart the place accused intercourse trafficker Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide on August 10, 2019.
Pacific Press/LightRocket by way of Getty Photos
Requested a couple of looking historical past displaying that she searched “newest on Epstein in jail” lower than an hour earlier than he was discovered useless, Noel mentioned she was searching for furnishings on-line and was inquisitive about one of many inmates beneath her supervision.
“Like, if I see it on the homepage, I click on on it and browse it. However so far as performing a bodily search, I do not recall doing that,” she mentioned, based on the transcript.
A lot of the deposits to her checking account predated Epstein’s arrest. One got here 10 days earlier than his dying.
Requested about these transactions, Noel mentioned she deposited the cash herself.
“The supply of the cash that, as I discussed earlier, has nothing do with Epstein, anybody associated to Epstein, concerned with Epstein. Nobody has ever approached, supplied, requested. Something that is regarding my cash has nothing to go together with Epstein in any respect. It is solely me and my private financial savings,” she mentioned.
Noel additionally denied figuring out something about an unexplained transient flash of orange seen on the surveillance digicam close to Epstein’s cell the evening earlier than he was discovered useless.
On this picture offered by the New York State Intercourse Offender Registry, Jeffrey Epstein has his photograph taken March 28, 2017.
AP
The character of the orange flash stays a thriller to today, and Noel mentioned the timing of the orange flash doesn’t align with when she did her rely that evening.
“To be very trustworthy, I do not know what it’s, who it’s. As a result of I by no means went again to the tier, and I used to be by no means carrying something orange in any respect, and I by no means issued something orange to anybody within the SHU — not simply solely Epstein, simply anybody,” she mentioned, based on the transcript.
Noel advised lawmakers that MCC suffered a number of “systemic failures” — together with persistent understaffing and insufficient coaching — and that she was by no means correctly skilled to work within the unit the place Epstein was situated.
Acknowledging the errors she made that evening when Epstein died, Noel implored lawmakers that she wish to transfer on and not be related to the disgraced intercourse offender.
“I wish to ask the world to permit me to heal and transfer on with my life. I am not a legal. I did not conspire to trigger Mr. Epstein’s dying. It’s my want to be left alone in spite of everything of as we speak’s interview,” Noel mentioned.
