The last prison guard to see Jeffrey Epstein alive drove a $62,000 Land Rover and collected $11,880 in unexplained cash the year he died.
Now House Oversight Chairman James Comer wants answers the DOJ never bothered to collect.
And when you hear what investigators found in her bank records – and what she was doing on her computer 40 minutes before Epstein's body turned up – you'll understand why most of Congress still doesn't believe he killed himself.
Epstein Files Reveal Tova Noel Googled Him 40 Minutes Before His Body Was Found
Tova Noel was supposed to check on Jeffrey Epstein every 30 minutes.
She didn't.
DOJ documents reveal she spent her overnight shift at the Metropolitan Correctional Center shopping online for furniture and falling asleep.
Her colleague Michael Thomas was browsing motorcycle listings.
Neither guard made required rounds for hours.
Then, at 5:42 a.m. on August 10, 2019, Noel picked up her computer and searched "latest on Epstein in jail."
She searched again at 5:52 a.m.
At 6:30 a.m., Thomas walked to Epstein's cell and found him dead – hanging with strips of orange cloth.
An internal FBI briefing identified Noel as the likely figure captured on surveillance video at 10:40 p.m. the night before – the last person on camera approaching Epstein's cell – carrying what appeared to be linens or inmate clothing.
The same orange cloth Epstein allegedly used to hang himself.
Noel told investigators she never handed out linens.
She also told investigators, in a sworn statement to the DOJ in 2021, that she never searched for Epstein online.
The FBI's own 66-page forensic examination of the guards' computers said otherwise – and it was the only search they specifically flagged.
The $11,880 Suspicious Activity Report the DOJ Never Bothered to Investigate
Here's what makes this more than a guard sleeping through a high-profile suicide.
Chase Bank flagged a series of cash deposits in Noel's account and submitted a suspicious activity report to the FBI in November 2019 – three months after Epstein died.
Twelve deposits starting in April 2018.
The largest: $5,000 in cash on July 30, 2019 – ten days before Epstein was found dead.
Seven deposits between December 2018 and his death totaled $11,880.
Noel had only begun working in the Special Housing Unit – the wing where Epstein was held – on July 7, 2019.
She started her new assignment, received $5,000 in cash 23 days later, and ten days after that, the most important inmate in federal custody was dead.
Comer told Jesse Watters why that $5,000 deposit stands out: suspicious activity reports are rarely filed for sums under $10,000 – meaning the bank considered this transaction alarming enough to flag anyway.
The DOJ had the bank records.
They had the suspicious activity report.
They sat Noel down for a deposition in 2021.
They never asked her about the cash.
James Comer Calls Tova Noel Before House Oversight as Epstein Death Questions Mount
Comer announced Tuesday that his committee will call Noel in for a transcribed interview.
The move comes after the House Oversight Committee has already deposed Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Comer laid out what Congress wants answered: Who else abused Epstein's victims?
Why did the government repeatedly fail to prosecute Epstein before his final arrest?
Was Epstein an intelligence asset – operating for or against the United States?
Was any government agency involved in destroying or hiding evidence from his four properties?
And most pointedly: was Epstein's death a suicide?
"Most people on the committee aren't confident 100% that Epstein's death was by suicide," Comer said.
That's the chairman of the House Oversight Committee – not someone on the internet.
A separate FBI interview note in the newly released files describes an unnamed inmate at the MCC who said he woke to commotion at around 6:30 a.m., heard officers shouting "Breathe! Breathe!" and then, while breakfast was being served, heard someone say "you killed that dude."
A female guard responded: "If he is dead we're going to cover it up and he's going to have an alibi – my officers."
Later that morning, other prisoners were saying "Miss Noel killed Jeffrey."
Noel denied everything.
She also got a deferred prosecution agreement, escaped criminal charges entirely, and walked away from the most suspicious prison death in American history without ever being asked about $11,880 in cash her own bank reported to the FBI.
Powerful people made that deal happen.
The same powerful people who made sure the DOJ interviewed her without once touching the money.
Your government failed Epstein's victims at every turn – from the sweetheart Palm Beach deal in 2008 that let him walk, to the suspicious activity report that went nowhere, to the federal charges against the guards that dissolved into a deferred prosecution agreement.
Comer is doing what prosecutors refused to do.
The only question is whether Noel will finally tell the truth – or whether Congress will have to drag the answers out the same way they dragged out everyone else.
Sources:
- Taylor Penley, "Comer seeks testimony from prison guard on duty the night Jeffrey Epstein died in jail," Fox News, March 11, 2026.
- Cullen Linebarger, "Rep. James Comer to Subpoena Epstein Guard After Chilling Google Search and Mysterious $5,000 Deposit Days Before Epstein's Alleged Suicide," The Gateway Pundit, March 11, 2026.
- "Cash Deposits and Google Searches: The Questions Surrounding Epstein's Jail Guards," The Epstein Chronicles Podcast, March 8, 2026.
- "Epstein's Prison Guard Googled Him Minutes Before His Death, Received $5K Deposit," Black News, March 10, 2026.
- "2 prison guards charged with conspiracy and filing false records on the night of Jeffrey Epstein's death," CNN, November 19, 2019.
