A former New York cop-turned-murderer was accused by Jeffrey Epstein of trying to strangle him in his cell just 18 days before the disgraced financier was found dead.
Newly unearthed documents reveal Epstein told prison staff that his cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, 57, attacked him on the night of July 23, 2019 — less than three weeks before his apparent suicide.
Epstein was discovered at 1.27am lying on the floor of his Metropolitan Correctional Center cell with an orange noose around his neck, unable to answer officers' questions.
After being stretchered to another floor, he told staff he had been assaulted by Tartaglione, a former cop serving life for a quadruple murder that had already questioned him in their cell over his connections to powerful people, it is claimed.
In a newly released transcript of former Attorney General Bill Barr's closed-door testimony to the House Oversight Committee, Barr admitted he knew of the incident but insisted it was a suicide attempt, arguing it reflected Epstein's 'state of mind' before his death.
