type: timeline_event
On March 13, 2026, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer formally requested that Tova Noel, one of the two federal prison guards on duty the night Jeffrey Epstein died at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in August 2019, appear for a transcribed interview scheduled for March 26. The request focused on a disturbing detail that had drawn renewed scrutiny: Noel had Googled Epstein's name less than an hour before he was found unresponsive in his cell, raising questions about what she knew and when.
Noel and her fellow guard Michael Thomas had been accused of sleeping on the job, browsing the internet, and falsifying records during the overnight shift when Epstein was supposed to be checked on every 30 minutes. Both guards were charged with federal crimes for their dereliction of duty, but prosecutors dropped all charges in 2021 after the guards completed community service agreements — a resolution that critics argued was far too lenient given the magnitude of the failure and the high-profile nature of the prisoner in their care.
The request came amid a broader congressional push to understand the full circumstances of Epstein's death and the systemic failures at the Bureau of Prisons that enabled it. Oversight Committee investigators were particularly interested in the chronology of events that night, including the gap in surveillance footage, the failure of the facility's check-in protocols, and the decision-making process that led to Epstein being left without a cellmate despite being on suicide watch days earlier.
The testimony request represented one of the most direct congressional efforts to compel firsthand accounts from individuals present during the security failures surrounding Epstein's death. Whether Noel would cooperate remained uncertain, as she retained the right to invoke Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination during any transcribed interview with congressional investigators.