Newly released Justice Department files include an FBI note in which an inmate claimed prison guards at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City openly discussed covering upJeffrey Epstein's deathon the morning his body was discovered in August 2019.

According to a handwritten note in the latest batch of Justice Department files released, an inmate claimed that a guard made a striking remark as breakfast was being handed out on the morning Jeffrey Epstein was found unresponsive.

The note records the guard as allegedly saying: 'If he is dead, we're going to cover it up and he's going to have an alibi, my officers.'

The same note states that other prisoners started shouting that 'Miss Noel killed Jeffrey'. The name 'Miss Noel' appears to refer to Tova Noel, one of the correctional officers on duty that night.

The fresh documents also revisit in detail the role of Tova Noel in the hours leading up to Jeffrey Epstein's death.

A transcript of Noel's interview with FBI agents shows she was questioned about an internet search of Epstein's name carried out on a prison computer shortly before he died. The transcript records an agent asking her: 'No? Does it surprise you to hear that you know internet searches would show that that's what you were doing from 5:42 to 5:52 a.m. on August 10, 2019?'

Noel responded that it would surprise her and insisted, 'It wouldn't be accurate.' She also claimed she had not known who Epstein was before being assigned to the special housing unit where he was housed.

During the same interview, Noel acknowledged that she was the last person to see or speak with Epstein alive. She recalled that he had asked her to plug in his CPAP machine. According to her account, another guard later found Epstein unresponsive in his cell and began CPR.

'Breathe, Epstein, breathe!' Noel remembered the guard shouting as he tried to resuscitate the inmate. She said the guard then turned to her and said, 'We're going to be in so much trouble.'

Noel was later charged over allegations that she falsified records to show that she and another officer, Michael Thomas, had carried out required rounds on the unit when, according to investigators, they had not. Those criminal charges were eventually dropped although both lost their jobs.

Source: International Business Times UK