House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer sent a letter Friday to Tova Noel, one of the guards in Jeffrey Epstein’s prison unit, seeking her testimony on March 26.
Noel, a guard at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, was accused of failing to complete regular checks on Epstein before his death. Epstein, a convicted sex offender, died in a prison cell in what was determined to be a suicide.
“Due to public reporting, documents released by the Department of Justice, and documents obtained by the committee, the committee believes you have information that will assist in its investigation,” Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, wrote.
Noel was one of the prison guards fired for allegedly falsifying records to say they checked on Epstein. The other guard was also charged, but a federal judge dismissed the charges in January 2022 after the guards completed a deferred prosecution agreement.
According to a 2019 release by the Justice Department, the initial indictment stated that the two guards “repeatedly failed to complete mandated counts of prisoners under their watch in the MCC’s Special Housing Unit,” and instead “sat at their desk, browsed the internet, and moved around the common area of the SHU.”
The indictment added that “as a result of the defendants’ conduct, no correctional officer conducted any count or round of the SHU from approximately 10:30 p.m. on August 9 until approximately 6:30 a.m. on August 10,” when the guards said they discovered Epstein’s body.
After the 2022 dismissal, Noel’s lawyer Jason Foy said: “The shortcomings and mistakes made by Ms. Noel were a result of inexperience, lack of proper and sufficient training, and being put in a position to fail by the leadership of MCC and the Bureau of Prisons.”
The Daily Signal left phone and email messages with Foy for this story. He did not respond by publication time.
The committee has investigated alleged mismanagement of the Justice Department’s investigation into Epstein and associate Ghislaine Maxwell. It has also reviewed the subsequent investigations of Mr. Epstein’s death.
Further, the committee has investigated how Epstein and Maxwell sought to curry favor and exercise influence to protect their illegal activities.
The committee has notably interviewed former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Bill Barr, and former Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, as well as Maxwell. The panel also interviewed businessman Les Wexner, and Epstein accountant Richard Kahn.
