Legal disclaimer: This article is based solely on documents released in the federal EFTA (Electronic Filing and Text Archive) production, made public through litigation, supplemented by the archive's entity index. All facts are drawn from those documents. This article does not assert guilt, wrongdoing, or criminal conduct on the part of any individual. Language such as "documents indicate," "records show," and "alleged" reflects the evidentiary basis and does not constitute a legal conclusion. Minors are not identified in this reporting.
Jack Goldberger appears in 1,898 records in the InvArchives entity index, spanning more than a decade of the Epstein case file — from the 2008 state plea hearing in Palm Beach County to a 2020 privilege review of Epstein's estate records conducted after his death. A Palm Beach criminal defense attorney with the firm Atterbury, Goldberger & Weiss, P.A., Goldberger was Jeffrey Epstein's lead local counsel through the negotiation and entry of the controversial 2008 state plea deal, continued to represent him in civil depositions the following year, and was still being identified as Epstein's attorney by document reviewers in 2020, more than a year after Epstein's death.
On June 30, 2008, Goldberger appeared before Palm Beach Circuit Judge Deborah Dale Pucillo at a plea conference in State of Florida v. Jeffrey Epstein. The certified transcript, preserved in the archive as Plea Conference Transcript, State of Florida v. Jeffrey Epstein, opens with Goldberger announcing his appearance: "Good morning, Judge, Jack Goldberger on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein." He and Assistant State Attorney Lanna Belohlavek walked the court through a negotiated disposition in which Epstein pleaded guilty to one count of felony solicitation of prostitution and one count of procuring a person under 18 for prostitution — sentenced to twelve months in the Palm Beach County jail followed by six months, to be served under "community control one," a form of supervision that, as Goldberger confirmed to the court, did not require an electronic monitor.
The transcript shows Judge Pucillo repeatedly pressing Goldberger and Belohlavek on the specifics of that supervision, since the terms had not been fully written into the plea sheet. At one point the court asked whether anyone had confirmed that Epstein's Palm Beach residence, 358 El Brillo Way, complied with a standard condition barring registered sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a place "where children regularly congregate." Goldberger told the court his office had "done our due diligence" and concluded the residential street had no such gathering place, while acknowledging that "if it doesn't, we fully recognize that he can't live there."
The same transcript records a moment where Goldberger asked to approach the bench. At sidebar — itself recorded — he told the judge that, separate from the state plea, "the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida" had agreed not to prosecute Epstein federally provided he completed the terms of the state disposition, and that the federal agreement was a sealed, confidential document the defense wanted the court to be aware of. Judge Pucillo confirmed on the record that the arrangement would be void if Epstein violated community control, and directed that a sealed copy be filed in the case. This exchange in the plea transcript is one of the earliest on-the-record acknowledgments, from Epstein's own defense counsel, that the state case was bound to what later became known publicly as the 2007 federal Non-Prosecution Agreement.
Separately, a Department of Justice notification sent the same day the plea was entered — Notification of Identified Victims — confirms that "the United States has agreed to defer federal prosecution in favor of this state plea and sentence, subject to certain conditions," consistent with what Goldberger disclosed at sidebar.
Not everyone viewed the plea as adequate. A July 3, 2008 letter to the U.S. Attorney's Office from a law firm representing "several of the young girls" Epstein was accused of victimizing — preserved as Letter to U.S. Attorney's Office Objecting to Plea Sentence — argued the state sentence was "grossly inadequate" and urged aggressive federal prosecution. The InvArchives entity index shows Goldberger's records intersecting repeatedly with those of Bradley J. Edwards and Jack Scarola, attorneys who represented Epstein's accusers in the related federal civil litigation, Jane Doe v. United States, No. 08-80736.
After the plea, Goldberger's office remained involved in implementing its terms. An internal DOJ email chain from late June 2008, RE: Notice of Non-Compliance CONFIDENTIAL, shows prosecutors coordinating a plea hearing and noting that "Goldberger agreed to my change," while separately arranging to notify victims of the scheduling. Weeks later, in September 2008, Goldberger corresponded directly with a federal prosecutor about press coverage of the case, copying an individual identified only as "Lefkowitz" on the exchange, in an email preserved as RE: Letter Concerning Epstein and the Palm Beach Daily News: "We will deal with the state. To answer your [question], the addendum has been filed."
Goldberger's role extended beyond the criminal case. The archive includes a transcript of Continued Deposition of Jeffrey Epstein, Volume II, taken October 8, 2009, in which Goldberger appears on the record as counsel for Epstein alongside attorney Michael J. Pike, opposite plaintiff's counsel Spencer Kuvin and attorneys representing multiple Jane Does in related civil suits. The deposition was one of several civil proceedings arising from the same underlying allegations that produced the 2008 criminal case.
The archive's most recent record naming Goldberger dates to October 2020, more than a year after Epstein died in federal custody. In an email chain preserved as Re: Epstein SW Returns, government document reviewers processing a search-warrant database flagged communications for further privilege screening "because it may belong to Jack Goldberger, who represented Epstein." A follow-up message confirms the material was set aside: "The Goldberger hits have been moved out." The exchange shows that, years after the criminal case concluded and after Epstein's death, records connected to Goldberger's representation were still being treated as potentially privileged attorney-client material during document review.
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