Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Tova Noel And The Transcript From Her Congressional Testimony (Part 2) (6/18/26)
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
- 0:02Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're going to dive right
- 0:06back in to the Tovia Nowell transcript from her meeting
- 0:10with Congress. Question thank you, I see we have another
- 0:14member of Congress. Would he please identify himself for the record,
- 0:17mister Submaranean Representative Suha Submaranium, Virginia's tenth district. Question thank you.
- 0:25All right, My time reads ten eighteen, and the majority
- 0:28of time will begin now. Question, Miss Noel, thank you
- 0:32again for appearing here voluntarily today. I'd like to start
- 0:35this interview by discussing more about your background. I know
- 0:39you mentioned it in your opening statement. But where are
- 0:41you from originally? Answer? Antigua? Question Antigua? And when did
- 0:46you first move to New York? Answer? I first moved
- 0:50to New York. About I first moved to New York,
- 0:52I want to say about twenty eleven. Question what made
- 0:56you decide to move there? Answer? When I came to
- 0:58this country. I first lived in Pennsylvania, and after I
- 1:02graduated high school, I moved to New York because I
- 1:04like New York better than Pennsylvania. Question. I know you
- 1:08just did so, but can you, briefly, again for the record,
- 1:10walk us through your professional career. Answer. I graduated high
- 1:15school at sixteen, went onto the military when I turned nineteen.
- 1:19I gained an associate's degree in criminal justice. I went
- 1:22on to gaining a bachelor's degree, also in criminal justice
- 1:25and a minor in law. I completed six years in
- 1:28military one torn Kuwait. I worked for the United States
- 1:31Postal Service and then later on went on to work
- 1:34for the Federal Bureau at Prisons along with other employment.
- 1:38Question when did you begin working at the Metropolitan Correctional
- 1:41Center in New York? Answer June twenty eighteen. Question you
- 1:45mentioned your job right before that was working for the
- 1:48US Postal Service. Answer correct question Okay, What years did
- 1:53you work at MCC? Answer twenty eighteen, June twenty eighteen
- 1:58to August tenth, twenty nineteen. Question how was it that
- 2:01you ended up working at MCC? Answer While working at
- 2:04the United States Postal Service, I received a call from
- 2:07the MCC to gain employment there and I accepted. Question
- 2:11so someone reached out to you answer correct question Okay,
- 2:15And why did you make that decision to start working there? Answer?
- 2:19Because I had the background in criminal justice and I
- 2:21wanted to pursue my degree field. Question what was your
- 2:25first role or position at MCC Answer correctional officer? Question
- 2:30were you ever assigned to more than one role while
- 2:33at MCC? Answer no, ma'am. Question can you describe what
- 2:37your responsibilities were in that role? Answer? My role as
- 2:41a correctional officer was to oversee inmates to make sure
- 2:44that they're performing their daily tasks and the functions, and
- 2:47to make sure that they're accounted for. Question and at
- 2:50what point were you assigned to the Special Housing Unit? Answer?
- 2:55I was assigned to the Special Housing Unit in June
- 2:58of twenty nineteen, and for the purposes of the record,
- 3:02I'm going to be referring to the Special Housing Unit
- 3:04as the shoe spelled shu. Who first told you that
- 3:08you are going to be assigned to the shoe? Answer?
- 3:11I don't recall exactly who told me that I was
- 3:13going to be assigned to the shoe? Question Okay, were
- 3:16you ever told that? Why you are being moved to
- 3:18the shoe? Answer? So, based on seniority, you get to
- 3:22bid for your post, and the only post that was
- 3:24left was the shoe. Question how did you feel about
- 3:28being moved to the shoe at the time. Answer, I
- 3:30didn't want to go to the shoe because I wasn't
- 3:32familiar with working the shoe. When I shadowed, I shadowed
- 3:36on regular housing units, not the shoe. Question Okay, Miss
- 3:41Pierra Bend. We have a new staff member that's entered
- 3:44the room. Will he please identify himself? Robert Edmondson, staff director,
- 3:49ranking member Garcia. Question was working in the shoe considered
- 3:53a promotion to the rest of the staff at MCC?
- 3:57Answer no question? Why not answer because it was a
- 4:00housing unit. Question Okay, so there was a difference between
- 4:04a correctional officer working the shoe or any other area
- 4:07at the MCC. Answer correct. Question. Okay, what was your
- 4:11salary while working in the shoe? Answer I don't recall exactly.
- 4:16Question Okay, you worked at MCC for over a year.
- 4:18Answer yes. Question was that your only job during that
- 4:23entire time? Or did you have any additional sources of
- 4:26income outside of your salary? Question? Additional sources of income
- 4:31was via benefits? Question where you're receiving those the entire time?
- 4:35Answer yes, mister Emmer. Question in your opening you referenced
- 4:40was it a workplace injury? When did that occur. Answer
- 4:43March question March of twenty eighteen. Answer no, March of
- 4:48twenty nineteen question excuse me, thank you? And then when
- 4:51did you return back to work? Answer June of twenty
- 4:55nineteen question thank you, Miss fire a bend question. So
- 5:01we're going to discuss mister Epstein's death and that night
- 5:04more specifically in a little bit, but I'd like to
- 5:06first get a better sense of the structure and the
- 5:08staffing roles at MCC. Answer okay, question so you never
- 5:14mentioned that you were first assigned in June twenty nineteen
- 5:17to the Shoe. Can you describe how the Shoe specifically
- 5:21differs from other units at MCC. Answer. So, for a
- 5:25regular housing unit, the inmates are let out and they
- 5:27can move around, whereas in the Shoe you're locked in
- 5:30for twenty three hours and you're only out for one hour,
- 5:33and it's a more secure area. The only inmates that
- 5:37out would be like the orderlies question what are those? Answer?
- 5:41The orderlies or inmates that are considered to have privileges
- 5:44they're allowed to come out to clean or the law
- 5:47library question. Okay, I know you touched on this in
- 5:50your opening statement, but was there any special training that
- 5:53you had to undergo in order to be assigned to
- 5:55the shoe Answer yeah. Question and did you complete the
- 5:59special train that was required? Answer? No question? Why not
- 6:04answer because I was out with an injury. Question you
- 6:06mentioned going back one question that there were orderleads in
- 6:09the shoe was mister Epstein considered an orderly? Answer? No question?
- 6:15Why not answer? I don't make the decision on who
- 6:18becomes an orderly? I don't know. Question Okay, do you
- 6:21know how it was decided? Answer of who becomes an orderly? No?
- 6:25I don't question okay. Back to the special training. Were
- 6:29you ever directed by supervisors to say that you have
- 6:32completed the training when you had not? Can you provide
- 6:35more details about what happened there? Answer? When I came
- 6:38back from the injury, I was told to report to
- 6:40the supervisor. When I went to her, she asked me
- 6:43to sign the training log to say that I completed
- 6:45the shoe training because that was my assigned post at
- 6:48the time. So I informed her that I did not
- 6:51complete the training. She told me not to worry about it,
- 6:54just to sign it because they need to pass program review.
- 6:58Question do you know if there were other correctional officers
- 7:01that she told the same thing too. Answer, I don't know.
- 7:05Mister Foy may have a word real quick, they go
- 7:08off record, they go back on Noel. Oh, and when
- 7:11she asked me to sign, she also asked me not
- 7:13to date it. Question why was that? Answer? I guess
- 7:17because the date where I was signing would have would
- 7:20have conflicted with the time that the training actually took place.
- 7:23Question and who was the supervisor? What was the supervisor's name?
- 7:27Miss Noel Kimberly Shivers. Question do you have any idea
- 7:31whether that was an ordinary practice by supervisors for the Shoe? Answer?
- 7:35I don't know. Question understanding that you did not complete
- 7:39the training, did you know what the training entailed? Answer no?
- 7:44Question Okay, did you ever hear anybody talk about the training? Answer? No?
- 7:48Question when you were in the Shoe, what was the
- 7:52breakdown of your team? Answer like how many people? Question? Sure?
- 7:56How many total people on staff in the Shoe? Answer
- 8:00so the Shoe had myself and two other correctional officers
- 8:03on the four pm to midnight shift. On the twelve
- 8:06pm to eight am shift, it was two people. Question
- 8:10did you have people working over you? Answer? Could you clarify? Answer? Sure?
- 8:14When you were on shift, did you have any supervisors
- 8:17that were also working at that time? Answer yes, question okay,
- 8:21how many of those were there? Answer? The supervisor would
- 8:25be considered the lieutenants. So there's about, I want to say,
- 8:28four or five lieutenants, all not on at the same time,
- 8:32but rotating their shifts. Question okay, so when you were
- 8:36on shift from four pm to midnight shift, it would
- 8:39be one one other correctional officer and one to four lieutenants.
- 8:44Answers No, So on shift four to midnight it would
- 8:47be me and two correctional officers in the shoe. In
- 8:50the building, it would be the lieutenants downstairs in the
- 8:53lieutenant's office, about two or three maybe on a shift.
- 8:56Question okay, going back to the training, were you ever
- 8:59told to complete the training after you started working in
- 9:02the shoe? Answer for shoe training. No question okay, so
- 9:07you signed and then began working answer correct question okay,
- 9:11thank you. Did you know if the number of the
- 9:14people on staff in the shoe was typical or were
- 9:16you guys understaffed? Answer? We were understaffed. Question how understaff
- 9:21would you say? Answer it's supposed to be four people,
- 9:24not three, but it was three. Question, Okay, what kind
- 9:27of problems or issues did that cause the understaffing? Answer
- 9:31A lot of mandated overtime. Question so the overtime hours
- 9:34were not voluntary? Answer no question? Okay answer can I
- 9:39clarify that question? Sure? Answer, the overtime is not voluntary,
- 9:43it's mandated. But we volunteer because when you volunteer, you
- 9:46get to pick your post. When they mandate you, they
- 9:50put you where they want you to go. So because
- 9:52we know we're going to get mandated, we volunteer on
- 9:55the front end, like I explained to my opening statement,
- 9:58versus getting hit with the mandation on the back end
- 10:01to where they need you to go. Question who was
- 10:04instituting the mandatory overtime hours? Answer on that day, Lieutenant Canata.
- 10:09Question and how often would you or other correctional officers
- 10:12in the shoe have to work overtime? Answer every day?
- 10:16Question how many shifts would you work a week? Answer
- 10:19five days of double shifts. But on your last day
- 10:23you can't be mandated, so did be? Four? Question was
- 10:26every shift that you worked did that include an overtime shift?
- 10:29Answer yes? Question so eight hours plus gets interrupted by tova.
- 10:36Answer another eight question? So sixteen hour total shifts. Answer correct.
- 10:41Question What were your shifts like when you were working
- 10:43in the shoe? Answer my shift was four pm to midnight,
- 10:47and I had one day where it was two to ten. Question.
- 10:50How would you describe working a shift in the shoe.
- 10:53Answer when you come in for your shift at four
- 10:55o'clock counters being done, and immediately after that you're getting
- 10:59ready to feed in me. And after that I kind
- 11:02of always wait on the directive from the senior officer
- 11:05that I'm working with because I don't really know how
- 11:07to work the shoe, So whatever they asked me to
- 11:09do or tell me to do, I kind of lean
- 11:11on the senior person. Question was Michael Thomas? Was he
- 11:15a senior officer? Answer yes, question okay. On a typical shift,
- 11:19you said that you would feed the inmates. Were there
- 11:22any other responsibilities that you had on every shift? Answer
- 11:26giving out toilet tries for example, toilet paper rounds. Question
- 11:30Were those responsibilities expected of you on every shift or
- 11:33do they differ? Answer in the Shoe Yes, question okay.
- 11:38Did they differ by the time of day or the
- 11:40hour or the shifts that you're working? Answer no? Question
- 11:44Would you always complete all your duties. Answer, to the
- 11:47best of my recollection, not all the time. Question Okay,
- 11:49why not answer? Because sometimes we don't have enough people,
- 11:53So depending on the task, it probably can't get done
- 11:56because there's not enough people to get it done. Or
- 11:59sometimes it is enough people, but because they're tired, it
- 12:02doesn't get done correctly. Emmer, did you prioritize which tasks
- 12:06were most important when you decided or when some certain
- 12:09tasks weren't completed, Noel, no, I just kind of went
- 12:13with the flow of whoever I was working with at
- 12:16the time. All Right, we're going to wrap up right here,
- 12:19and in the next episode, we're going to pick up
- 12:21where we left off. All the information that goes with
- 12:24this episode can be found in the description box.