Epstein Data Wiki

Jack Goldberger

Properties2
tagsperson, attorney, florida, palm-beach, 2008-plea
aliasesJack A. Goldberger, Jack Alan Goldberger

17 min read

ProfessionCriminal defence lawyer, West Palm Beach, Florida1
FirmAtterbury, Goldberger & Weiss, P.A.; also filed as Atterbury, Goldberger, Richardson & Weiss12
RoleFlorida counsel to Jeffrey Epstein from 2006; counsel at the June 30, 2008 state plea34

Jack Alan Goldberger is a criminal defence lawyer in West Palm Beach, Florida, and a partner in the firm Atterbury, Goldberger & Weiss, P.A.15 He acted as Jeffrey Epstein’s Florida counsel from 2006, appeared for Epstein at the state plea conference of June 30, 2008 at which Epstein pleaded guilty to two Florida felonies, and remained counsel of record for him in Florida civil litigation into 2010.3456 He was one of a defence team that also included Kenneth Starr, Jay Lefkowitz, Roy Black, Alan Dershowitz, Gerald Lefcourt, Guy Lewis and Lilly Ann Sanchez in the negotiation of the September 2007 federal non-prosecution agreement.7 Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida recorded complaints about his handling of the case in an internal email of December 2008 and in a letter to the defence team of June 2009.89

Retention and the state case, 2006

A Palm Beach Police Department incident report records that by late May 2006 Epstein had “retained new legal council,” and that a meeting between Assistant State Attorney Lanna Belohlavek and “Attorney Jack Goldberger” was set for 9:00 a.m. on June 1, 2006 at State Attorney Barry Krischer’s office.3 A further entry in the same case file, dated July 13, 2006, records that an assistant state attorney was taken off the Epstein case because of a connection to Goldberger’s office, Goldberger by then being “the attorney of record for Jeffrey Epstein”; Epstein’s previous lawyer had been dismissed and another assistant state attorney was assigned.10

A Palm Beach Post article by Larry Keller, preserved as an undated clipping in the state attorney’s file and reporting the unsealing of the county grand jury’s indictment of Epstein, reported that an earlier Epstein lawyer had been dismissed and Goldberger hired in his place.11 The same article reported Goldberger denying, on the record, that any Epstein lawyer had accepted a plea offer (“We absolutely did not agree to a plea in this case”) and denying knowledge of private investigators said to have followed people connected with the case: “I have no knowledge of it.”11 It also quoted him on the defence theory of the case: “He’s never denied girls came to the house,” and, of a polygraph examination, “he passed on knowledge of age.”11

The federal investigation and the 2007 non-prosecution agreement

A timeline of the federal investigation prepared for the Department of Justice records Goldberger writing to Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Marie Villafana on May 10, 2007 with a “Response to subpoenas JEGE, Inc. and Hyperion Air, Inc.,” and again on May 17, 2007 to obtain an “Extension of compliance deadlines until 5/29/07” for those subpoena responses.12 The same timeline records a meeting on September 12, 2007 attended for the United States by Andrew Lourie, Rolando Garcia and Villafana, for the State of Florida by Krischer and Belohlavek, and for the defence by Lefkowitz, Lefcourt and Goldberger.13

An April 22, 2008 letter from a line prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida to the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility gives that prosecutor’s account of a meeting with the State Attorney’s Office and three of Epstein’s lawyers, Goldberger, Lefcourt and Lefkowitz, at which the registration question was discussed and Goldberger said Epstein would plead guilty to procuring minors for prostitution, one of the charges that carried registration; on the prosecutor’s account he “specifically noted that this charge required registration but was still acceptable to the defense.”14 The same letter records that the defence later sought to substitute an offence that did not require registration, and that the writer came to understand the defence had believed at the time that the charge carried no such requirement.14 The investigation timeline records an email of September 21, 2007 from Krischer to two prosecutors summarizing the state negotiations, “including Goldberger’s request that Epstein not have to register as a sex offender.”15

In a letter of December 4, 2007 to Kenneth W. Starr of Kirkland & Ellis, U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta wrote that the defence team (Starr himself, Dershowitz, former U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis, Lilly Ann Sanchez, Roy Black, Goldberger, Gerald Lefcourt and Lefkowitz) had all had the opportunity to review the agreement and object to its terms.7 See the 2008 non-prosecution agreement.

The June 2008 state plea

The investigation timeline records that on June 26, 2008 Villafana emailed Goldberger and Roy Black about “proposed plea agreement and date and time of change of plea,” and that on June 27 she sent them a letter saying the proposed sentencing provision did not comply with the terms of the non-prosecution agreement.16 An email of June 27, 2008 at 10:00 a.m., subject “Have a great weekend!”, carried the draft “PLEA.Epstein.doc” to Goldberger; the sender’s name is redacted on the page.17 A defence letter of June 19, 2009 pointed to that email as evidence that responsibility for the timing lay with the State Attorney’s Office, which it said had not provided the agreement to the defence until “10:00 A.M. on June 27, 2008 (the Friday before the plea),” and that Goldberger forwarded it to the federal prosecutor the same afternoon.18

At 5:45 p.m. that Friday the prosecutor emailed Goldberger and Black a “Notice of Non-Compliance” attaching a notification letter, and at 8:49 a.m. the next morning Goldberger replied, confirming a telephone conference held at 6:30 p.m. on June 27 at which, he wrote, the two had agreed that “the Epstein state plea agreement was in compliance with the September 2007 non-prosecution agreement.”19 The prosecutor’s request had been that the defence insert the word “imprisoned” after “six months” in the second sentencing paragraph, and a Sunday June 29 email within the office records that Goldberger agreed to the change.19 The investigation timeline also records an email of June 27, 2008 from Villafana to First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Sloman summarizing a conversation with Goldberger in which Epstein would serve his sentence in confinement “24-hours-a-day.”16

Goldberger appeared for Epstein at the plea conference before Judge Deborah Dale Pucillo in Palm Beach County on the morning of June 30, 2008, opposite Belohlavek for the State.4 Epstein was adjudicated guilty of felony solicitation of prostitution and of procuring a person under 18 for prostitution, sentenced to consecutive terms of twelve and six months in the county jail followed by twelve months of community control, and designated a sexual offender under Florida Statute 943.0435.20

Asked by the court whether the plea was tied to any promises or representations by civil attorneys or other jurisdictions, Goldberger asked to approach the bench and disclosed on the record that “there is a nonprosecution agreement with the United States Attorney’s office that triggers as a result of this plea agreement,” under which, he said, the federal government would not prosecute Epstein in the Southern District of Florida for any offence once the plea was taken; he described it as a confidential document agreed between the parties.21 On August 7, 2019 counsel for a complainant sent that transcript on to prosecutors, drawing attention to the passage; the covering email’s subject line reads “concession by Epstein’s attorney that NPA only applies in Florida.”22 See the CVRA litigation.

A wire-transfer instruction faxed from Epstein’s New York office to JPMorgan on August 1, 2008 directed a payment of $20,000 to “Atterbury, Goldberger, Richardson & Weiss,” referenced “Monthly Retainer — August 2008.”2

Work release, and the prosecutors’ complaints

On December 3, 2008 an assistant U.S. attorney in West Palm Beach, whose name is redacted on the page, sent an internal email to two colleagues ahead of a 2:00 p.m. conference call, offering a personal account, hedged as “really disturbing info” that the writer and a colleague had “been doing some digging” to find, of how Epstein had come to be placed on work release. On that account Goldberger and the State Attorney had worked towards the placement from the outset; Goldberger had prepared a nunc pro tunc order containing language the federal office had specifically rejected and put it before a judge other than the sentencing judge, one whose standing order let the sheriff’s office grant work release to defendants she had sentenced; he had told the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office that the federal office knew of the placement and did not object; and he had threatened to sue that office when it objected to putting Epstein on the programme.823 The writer proposed to stop attributing the conduct to counsel rather than to Epstein and to take the point up with Epstein’s co-counsel.23 Responding six months later, in the same run of correspondence, to a formal letter that raised the same work-release placement, Jay Lefkowitz wrote for the defence that the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office had “properly exercised its discretion, in full compliance with its stated requirements, policies and procedures, to grant Mr. Epstein work release,” and, of the nunc pro tunc order specifically, that “Neither Mr. Epstein nor defense counsel had anything to do with and certainly no prior knowledge of” it.24 Ten days after the December 2008 email, a Palm Beach Daily News editorial quoted Goldberger saying his client was “a good guy” and someone who “deserves work release”; that remark goes to whether Epstein should have had the placement, and the prosecutor’s email to how it was obtained.25

On June 15, 2009 Acting U.S. Attorney Jeffrey H. Sloman wrote to Lefkowitz, Black and Goldberger about “what appears to be a continuing pattern in this matter,” listing four post-sentencing problems, the third of which was that “Messrs. Goldberger and Tein approved the dissemination of a victim notification letter that Messrs. Lefkowitz and Epstein contended contained incorrect information.”9 Lefkowitz answered that charge for the defence in a letter of June 19, 2009, writing that the incorrect passage was a modification the government had proposed unilaterally and the defence had never agreed to, and that its inclusion was not a willful breach but the work of counsel “acting in good faith.”26 That answer is Lefkowitz’s, written on behalf of the defence team; no statement by Goldberger himself on the point is recorded on this page.26

Later representation

A federal docket listing names “Jack Alan Goldberger, Atterbury Goldberger & Weiss, P.A., West Palm Beach, FL” as counsel for Jeffrey Epstein, defendant, in the consolidated Jane Doe civil actions in the Southern District of Florida beginning 9:08-cv-80119.5 A May 28, 2009 engagement letter from a second firm, addressed to Epstein “c/o Jack A. Goldberger, Esq.,” confirms that Atterbury, Goldberger & Weiss was among his “counsel of record” in the Florida civil litigation.27

A brief filed by Kirkland & Ellis in Epstein’s New York sex-offender risk-level proceeding cites a “Letter of Jack A. Goldberger to New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, August 12, 2010” as evidence that Florida had designated Epstein at the lower of that state’s two offender levels and required him to report only twice a year.28

In the Palm Beach County case Jeffrey Epstein v. Scott Rothstein (No. 502009CA040800), Goldberger filed a notice of appearance as co-counsel for Epstein on April 27, 2010; on September 12, 2013 Jack Scarola, counsel in that action for Bradley J. Edwards, caused a subpoena, SP-13-001190, to be issued to “JACK A. GOLDBERGER, ESQUIRE” in the same case.629

On July 10, 2018 Epstein received an emailed reminder, from a sender whose name is redacted, that he “must re register at the FL Stockade if in Fl during month of July”; he replied, “done,” to the redacted sender, Darren Indyke and Goldberger.30

Continuing contact, 2012-2019

On May 1, 2012 Goldberger told Epstein’s executive assistant Lesley Groff that a meeting with Epstein scheduled for Friday May 4 at 10:30 a.m. would be held at an office in Delray Beach.31

From 2013 Groff arranged apartments for Goldberger in a building used to house Epstein’s guests.32 In July 2013 Goldberger asked her to reserve one for a few nights that August, and she set an apartment aside for him.32 Calendar alerts and scheduling emails record further stays in May and June 2016, in April 2017 and in May 2018.333435

On August 13, 2018 Goldberger asked for an apartment for a trip at the end of September; Groff replied that none was free for most of the dates he wanted, and by September 6 he told her he would stay in a hotel for the whole trip and did not need one.3637 Groff relayed Epstein’s instruction, “tell jack we are payign for his hotel and entire trip”, and asked Goldberger to send his bills for reimbursement; Goldberger answered that he “never like[d] to do that to Jeffrey” but would send the bill at the end of the month if Epstein insisted.37 On October 1, 2018 he sent the figures: a hotel bill of $1,340 and a $350 airline change fee incurred, he wrote, “because we had a court hearing that Jeffrey wanted me to be at.”37 Asked whether he wanted a wire or a cheque, and to himself or the business, he replied, “wire to my office is fine.”37

Goldberger stayed again in April 2019: an email between a redacted sender and a redacted recipient, at the start of the month, asked that a welcome letter be left for his arrival, and on April 7 he emailed Groff that he had left the apartment and was on his way to the airport.3839

Two emails to Epstein, from senders whose names are redacted, passed on telephone messages for him to return: “Please try for Jack Goldberger again…” on March 19, 2015, and “Please call Jack Goldberger” on March 24, 2015.4041

Statements

  • Reported by the Palm Beach Post (Larry Keller), in an undated clipping preserved in the state attorney’s file, on the claim that an Epstein lawyer had accepted a plea offer: “We absolutely did not agree to a plea in this case.”11
  • Reported by the Palm Beach Post, on private investigators said to have followed people connected with the case: “I have no knowledge of it.”11
  • Reported by the Palm Beach Post, on the defence case: “He’s never denied girls came to the house,” and, of a polygraph examination, “he passed on knowledge of age.”11
  • In court, June 30, 2008, on the federal agreement: “there is a nonprosecution agreement with the United States Attorney’s office that triggers as a result of this plea agreement.”21
  • Reported by the Palm Beach Daily News, December 13, 2008, on his client’s work release: “a good guy” who “deserves work release.”25

Coverage

  • Palm Beach Post, Larry Keller (undated clipping in the state attorney’s file, reporting the unsealing of the county grand jury indictment).
  • Palm Beach Daily News editorial, December 13, 2008.

Footnotes

  1. U.S. Attorney’s Office to Lefkowitz, Black and Goldberger, June 15, 2009, address block: “Jack A. Goldberger, Esq., Atterbury, Goldberger & Weiss, P.A.” https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00213048 p.2. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. Wire-transfer instruction memorandum, “Jeffrey E. Epstein,” faxed to JPMorgan (“Francisco”) from Harry Beller, August 1, 2008, directing payment of $20,000 to “Atterbury, Goldberger, Richardson & Weiss,” reference “Monthly Retainer — August 2008.” https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01588315 p.1. ↩ ↩2

  3. Palm Beach Police Department incident report 1-05-000368, narrative entered June 6, 2006. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01333248 p.26. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. Transcript, plea conference, State of Florida v. Jeffrey Epstein, Nos. 06 CF 9454 AMB and 08 CF 9381 AMB, June 30, 2008, before Judge Deborah Dale Pucillo; filed as an exhibit in 9:08-cv-80736-KAM on July 8, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00027591 pp.1–2. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. Docket listing of counsel, Jane Doe v. Epstein, consolidated actions beginning 9:08-cv-80119 (S.D. Fla.). https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01387838 p.1. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. Docket, Jeffrey Epstein v. Scott Rothstein, No. 502009CA040800, Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, Palm Beach County, entry 58, April 27, 2010. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00606813 p.14. ↩ ↩2

  7. U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta to Kenneth W. Starr of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, faxed December 4, 2007, p.5 of the letter. Read at the image: the first sheet is headed “DELIVERY BY FACSIMILE” above Starr’s name and firm, opens “Dear Mr. Starr”, and refers to Epstein throughout in the third person; the passage cited names the team as “yourself, Professor Dershowitz, former United States Attorney Guy Lewis, Ms. Lilly Ann Sanchez and Messrs. Roy Black, Jack Goldberger, Gerry Lefcourt and Jay Lefkowitz”. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00213048 p.26. ↩ ↩2

  8. Internal email, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, “Question re Epstein,” December 3, 2008. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01657851 p.1. ↩ ↩2

  9. Jeffrey H. Sloman, Acting United States Attorney, to Jay P. Lefkowitz, Roy Black and Jack Goldberger, June 15, 2009, p.2. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00213048 p.3. ↩ ↩2

  10. Palm Beach Police Department incident report 1-05-000368, entry printed July 13, 2006. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01688596 p.38. ↩

  11. Larry Keller, “Polygraph shows he didn’t know girls’ ages, lawyer says,” Palm Beach Post, continued from page 1B; newspaper clipping preserved in the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s file, carrying no printed date. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01682733 p.12. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  12. “Epstein Investigation Timeline,” entries for May 10 and May 17, 2007. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00224943 p.5. ↩

  13. “Epstein Investigation Timeline,” entry for September 12, 2007. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00224943 p.14. ↩

  14. Letter from an Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, to the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility, April 22, 2008. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00208244 p.3. ↩ ↩2

  15. “Epstein Investigation Timeline,” entry for September 21, 2007. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00224943 p.20. ↩

  16. “Epstein Investigation Timeline,” entries for June 26 and June 27, 2008. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00224943 p.37. ↩ ↩2

  17. Email of June 27, 2008, 10:00 a.m., subject “Have a great weekend!”, attaching “PLEA.Epstein.doc,” forwarded within Goldberger’s office at 10:22 a.m.; the sender’s name is redacted on the page. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00213048 p.43. ↩

  18. Jay P. Lefkowitz, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, June 19, 2009, p.4. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00183732 p.38. ↩

  19. Email chain “Notice of Non-Compliance,” June 27–29, 2008. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00211958 pp.1–2. ↩ ↩2

  20. Plea conference transcript, June 30, 2008. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00027591 pp.5–6. ↩

  21. Plea conference transcript, June 30, 2008, sidebar. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00027591 p.38. ↩ ↩2

  22. Email chain, “Briefing in Florida regarding whether the Florida NPA extends to New York,” August 7, 2019; the sender’s name is redacted and the signature block identifies him as counsel for a complainant. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00019854 p.1. ↩

  23. Internal email, “Question re Epstein,” December 3, 2008, continuation. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01657851 p.2. ↩ ↩2

  24. Lefkowitz to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, June 19, 2009, p.7, on work release and Judge McSorley’s nunc pro tunc order. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00183732 p.41. ↩

  25. “Work-release for sex offender Jeffrey Epstein an insult to victims, public,” Palm Beach Daily News editorial, December 13, 2008. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01659995 p.1. ↩ ↩2

  26. Lefkowitz to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, June 19, 2009, p.6. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00183732 p.40. ↩ ↩2

  27. Reeder & Reeder P.A. engagement letter to Jeffrey Epstein, c/o Jack A. Goldberger, May 28, 2009. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00729318 p.1. ↩

  28. Kirkland & Ellis LLP submission in the New York sex-offender risk-level proceeding, citing Exhibit C, “Letter of Jack A. Goldberger to New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, August 12, 2010.” https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00722427 p.4. ↩

  29. Same docket, entry 653, subpoena SP-13-001190 issued September 12, 2013, one of a series issued that day on Scarola’s filing. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00606813 p.116. ↩

  30. Email, “Re: Reminder: you must re register at the FL Stockade if in Fl during month of July,” July 10, 2018; sender and one recipient redacted. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00477858 ↩

  31. Email chain “Re: Jeffrey Epstein,” April 30 – May 1, 2012. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00414408 ↩

  32. Email chain on apartment arrangements, July 2013. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00386548 ↩ ↩2

  33. Calendar alert recording a Goldberger stay, May 2016. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00324184 ↩

  34. Calendar alert recording a Goldberger stay, April 2017. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00448487 ↩

  35. Calendar alert recording a Goldberger stay, May 2018. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00473620 ↩

  36. Email chain “Re: apartment,” August 13, 2018. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00480188 ↩

  37. Email chain “Re: apartment,” September 6 – October 1, 2018. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00483084 pp.1–2. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  38. Email asking that a welcome letter be left for Goldberger, April 2019; sender and recipient redacted. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00492493 ↩

  39. Email chain, April 7, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00493660 ↩

  40. Email to Jeffrey Epstein, March 19, 2015; sender’s name redacted. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00351483 ↩

  41. Email to Jeffrey Epstein, March 24, 2015; sender’s name redacted. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00350771 ↩

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