2026年4月6日 / 美国东部时间下午1:56 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
杰弗里·爱泼斯坦2008年涉及招揽未成年人卖淫等罪名的认罪协议历来饱受争议，而最新披露的细节再次引发人们对他在佛罗里达州一所监狱服刑期间获得的外出工作许可的质疑。
爱泼斯坦于2008年7月认罪并向棕榈滩县警长办公室自首。当时来自多个州的数十名指控者（其中许多人在 alleged 犯罪时仍未成年）已准备好在联邦人口贩运指控案中指证他，但该案最终被搁置，作为交换，爱泼斯坦同意就佛罗里达州的较轻州级罪名认罪。许多爱泼斯坦的受害幸存者和该认罪协议的批评者都将其称为“偏袒性交易”。
在狱中服刑不到四个月后，爱泼斯坦获得了一项特殊安排：作为工作释放计划的一部分，他每周最多可以有六天、每天离开监管场所长达16小时，据称是为了在他刚刚创立的慈善组织“佛罗里达科学基金会”工作。
这一安排持续了九个月，直到2009年7月他被释放并接受为期一年的监管居家监禁。
在工作释放期间，爱泼斯坦每天都由他的保镖兼司机伊戈尔·季诺维耶夫接送，往返于监狱和西棕榈滩市中心的一间办公室。他的私人律师达伦·因迪克被列为他这份工作的官方监管人。爱泼斯坦同意雇佣离职的警长副手监控他的行踪、记录访客情况，并在他的办公室和住所提供安保。
根据《爱泼斯坦文件透明度法案》公布的文件，他用于往返的SUV车内配备了一张床。一名女子在向联邦调查局的陈述中声称，爱泼斯坦曾在这辆停在监狱停车场的车内与她发生性行为。
该女子告诉联邦调查局，她是一名来自斯洛伐克的前模特，爱泼斯坦在她十几岁还在上高中时就与她相识。她告诉探员，高三时她受爱泼斯坦的朋友兼商业伙伴让-吕克·布吕内尔招募，前往纽约市追求模特事业。2003年，她在纽约市奇普里亚尼餐厅参加布吕内尔的生日派对时与爱泼斯坦相识。
到爱泼斯坦入狱时，她与爱泼斯坦已经保持了数年的性关系。她是爱泼斯坦认罪协议中获得联邦不起诉豁免的四名“助手”之一。一些爱泼斯坦的指控者声称，这些女性参与了招募爱泼斯坦的受害者；但该女子在向联邦调查局的陈述中并未就此回应。这项不起诉协议最终获得了时任美国南佛罗里达地区检察官亚历山大·阿科斯塔的批准。
幸存者及其律师表示，这些指控只是他们所称的异常宽大处理的一个例子，其背后原因仍不明朗。
斯宾塞·库文是一名佛罗里达律师，曾代表多名爱泼斯坦的指控者，并率先对爱泼斯坦提起多起诉讼。库文告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，他们在诉讼中获取的官方监狱访客日志中从未出现过该女子的名字。库文表示，2010年他在代表一名未成年受害者起诉爱泼斯坦时，对该女子进行了证词录取。当时的证词记录显示，她援引第五修正案权利，拒绝回答问题。
“我认为当地警方完全缺乏监督，这绝对令人作呕，”库文说。
“如果这一切都是真的，他们竟然允许一名性捕食者在本应被关押期间继续其犯罪活动，这恰恰凸显了他得到的偏袒性交易，以及他凭借财富获得的优待，”他说道。
关于SUV车内情况的证词，来自2020年联邦调查局特工在纽约对吉斯莱恩·马克斯韦尔展开刑事调查时进行的一次采访。
美国司法部公布的杰弗里·爱泼斯坦相关文件。插图：弗拉季斯拉夫·涅克拉索夫/SOPA Images/通过盖蒂图片社的LightRocket提供
在此次采访中，该女子描述了爱泼斯坦与棕榈滩县警长部门成员之间看似友好的关系，以及他在服刑期间受到的极少监管。她说，当她和爱泼斯坦将车停在监狱停车场时，“记得停车场里有手电筒，但从未有人走到车旁查看”。
哥伦比亚广播公司新闻隐去了该女子的姓名，因为她最近已表明自己是爱泼斯坦的受害者。在采访中，她还告诉调查人员，在两人的关系结束后，爱泼斯坦曾支付给她数十万美元，原因是她声称自己因负面报道难以找到工作。
哥伦比亚广播公司新闻多次通过她的律师试图联系她，但未收到任何回复。
在联邦调查局官员的多次采访记录（即所谓的302表格）中，她详细讲述了自己与爱泼斯坦的关系，包括在爱泼斯坦被监禁期间，两人曾通过网络摄像头进行虚拟性活动，当时爱泼斯坦似乎独自在监管场所内。
“这些采访真切展现了诱骗操控的过程，”另一名代表多名爱泼斯坦受害者的佛罗里达律师亚当·霍洛维茨告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，“我们听到的是一个已经被驯化到要保护爱泼斯坦的人的声音，即便她正在描述他用来剥削年轻女性的体系。”
该女子在联邦调查局采访中提到的其他细节还包括，爱泼斯坦与一名监狱警卫关系尤为密切，该警卫甚至在爱泼斯坦居家监禁期间到访他的住所，讨论潜在的工作机会。她还描述了一个恶作剧：在警长对他的住所进行检查时，爱泼斯坦躲在浴室里。她还说，爱泼斯坦曾吹嘘自己成功让一名对他态度恶劣的缓刑监督官被调走。
在她前往监狱探视期间，她说自己从未被要求签到或填写任何文书。
在司法部2019年公布的另一份文件中，一名自称是该监狱前兼职护理员的男子向联邦调查局提供了一条未经证实的线索，称爱泼斯坦花钱重新开放了监狱的一个封闭区域供自己使用，以避免与普通囚犯同住。这名线人称这是“极不寻常的优待”。
在回应哥伦比亚广播公司新闻的置评请求时，棕榈滩县警长部门写道：“我们没有证据证实这些事件确实发生过。”
佛罗里达州执法部门2021年针对棕榈滩县警长部门的调查报告显示，没有证据表明存在贿赂或不当影响影响了对爱泼斯坦的待遇。
“多名幸存者明确表示，爱泼斯坦的剥削行为在他被监禁期间并未停止，”反人口贩运组织“世界无剥削”主任劳伦·赫什告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，“往轻了说，爱泼斯坦这种极不寻常的安排暴露了执法部门的疏忽。更有可能的是，这反映了整个体系优先纵容捕食者，而非为幸存者伸张正义、保护弱势女性群体。”
显然，美国司法部的一些调查人员从未放弃对爱泼斯坦提起诉讼的希望。
“太遗憾了。我们手上有一个很棒的案子，”一名工作人员在爱泼斯坦文件中包含的一段此前未公开的短信中说道，“我从未放弃。我一直把所有材料准备就绪……以防不起诉协议被废除。”
又过了十年，爱泼斯坦再次被捕，并在纽约联邦法院面临未成年人贩运指控。2019年8月10日，他被发现死于曼哈顿一所监狱的牢房内，死因被裁定为自杀。
New details about Epstein’s lenient plea deal and jail term emerge from DOJ files
April 6, 2026 / 1:56 PM EDT / CBS News
Jeffrey Epstein’s controversial 2008 plea deal for charges including soliciting a minor for prostitution has long drawn scrutiny, and newly released details are raising further questions about the months he spent on work release from a Florida jail.
Epstein pleaded guilty and surrendered to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s office in July 2008. Dozens of accusers from several states, many underage at the time of the alleged crimes, had been prepared to testify against him on federal sex trafficking charges, but the case was shelved in exchange for his agreement to plea to lesser state charges in Florida. Many survivors of Epstein’s crimes and other critics of the plea agreement have called it a “sweetheart deal.”
After serving fewer than four months in jail, Epstein was granted a special arrangement that allowed him to leave custody for up to 16 hours a day, six days a week, as part of a work release program, allegedly to perform work at a charitable organization he had just established called the Florida Science Foundation.
This continued for the next nine months until his release to a year of supervised house arrest in July 2009.
Each day during his work release, Epstein was transported between the jail and an office in downtown West Palm Beach by his bodyguard and driver, Igor Zinoviev. His personal attorney, Darren Indyke, was listed as his official supervisor at the job. Epstein agreed to hire off-duty sheriff’s deputies to monitor his movements, log visitors and provide security at his office and home.
According to documents released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, his SUV used for these trips was outfitted with a bed. An account given to the FBI by one woman included the claim that Epstein engaged in sexual activity with her in the vehicle — while it was parked in the jail lot.
The woman told the FBI she was a former model from Slovakia who Epstein had first met when she was a teenager and still in high school. She told agents she was recruited from Slovakia by Epstein’s friend and business associate Jean-Luc Brunel during her senior year to move to New York City and pursue a career in modeling. She met Epstein at Brunel’s birthday party at the New York City restaurant Cipriani in 2003.
By the time of Epstein’s incarceration, she had been involved sexually with him for several years. She was one of four “assistants” granted immunity in a federal non-prosecution agreement that Epstein received in exchange for his plea. Some Epstein accusers have alleged that those women were involved in recruiting Epstein’s victims; she did not address that in statements to the FBI. The non-prosecution deal was ultimately approved by then U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Alexander Acosta.
Survivors and their attorneys say these allegations are just one example of what they describe as unusually lenient treatment, the reasons for which remain unclear.
Spencer Kuvin is a Florida attorney who represented many of Epstein’s accusers and brought several of the first lawsuits against him. Kuvin told CBS News that the woman’s name never appeared on the official prison visitor logs that they obtained as part of that litigation. Kuvin says that he deposed her in 2010 while suing Epstein on behalf of an underage victim. Transcripts of that deposition show her pleading the Fifth and declining to answer questions.
“I think it’s absolutely disgusting the lack of oversight by the local police department,” Kuvin said.
“If all of this is true, they allow a sexual predator to continue his activities even while he was supposed to be in custody and it just highlights the nature of the sweetheart deal that he got and the preferential treatment he received because of his wealth,” he said.
The testimony about the SUV came during a 2020 interview conducted by FBI agents in New York as part of the criminal investigation into Ghislaine Maxwell.
Documents from the U.S. Justice Department’s release of files on Jeffrey Epstein. Photo Illustration by Vladislav Nekrasov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
During the interview, the woman described what she characterized as a friendly relationship between Epstein and members of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department, along with minimal oversight during his incarceration. She said that when she and Epstein parked in the prison lot she “recalled flashlights in the parking lot, but no one ever came over to the car.”
CBS News is withholding her name because she has recently identified herself as an Epstein victim. In the interview she also told investigators that Epstein had paid her hundreds of thousands of dollars after their relationship had ended because of the challenges she claimed to be having in finding employment due to negative publicity.
CBS News made multiple attempts to contact her through her attorneys but did not receive any response.
Over several interviews with federal investigators, documented in official interview notes known as 302s, she provided extensive details about her relationship with Epstein, including that during his incarceration she engaged in virtual sexual activity using a web-cam with him while he was apparently alone in custody.
“These interviews really show how grooming works,” Adam Horowitz, another Florida attorney who represented many of Epstein’s victims, told CBS News, “You’re hearing the voice of someone who was conditioned to protect Epstein, even while describing the system he used to exploit young women.”
Other details from the woman’s FBI interview include that Epstein was particularly friendly with one prison guard who even visited Epstein’s home to discuss a potential job while Epstein was in home confinement. She described a prank in which Epstein hid in a bathroom during a sheriff’s inspection of his residence. She also said Epstein bragged about having an unfriendly probation officer transferred.
During her visits to the jail, she said she was never required to sign in or complete any paperwork.
In a separate 2019 document released by the DOJ, a man claiming to be a former part-time paramedic at the jail called in an uncorroborated tip to the FBI and stated that Epstein had paid for a closed section of the jail to be reopened for his use, to avoid being housed with the general population. The tipster called it “highly unusual preferential treatment.”
In response to questions from CBS News, the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Department wrote, “We have no evidence to substantiate that these incidents took place.”
A 2021 report by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement into the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Department found no evidence that bribery or undue influence affected Epstein’s treatment.
“A number of survivors have made clear that Epstein’s exploitation did not stop during his incarceration.” Lauren Hersh, director of the anti-trafficking group World Without Exploitation, told CBS News. “At best, Epstein’s highly unusual arrangement demonstrates law enforcement’s negligence. More likely, this is symptomatic of a system that prioritized accommodating a predator over delivering justice for survivors and protecting vulnerable girls and women.”
Apparently some investigators at the DOJ never gave up hope of pursuing the case against Epstein.
“It was a shame. We had a great case,” one employee said in a previously unreleased text included in the Epstein files. “I never gave up on it. I kept everything ready … in case the non prosecution agreement got voided.”
Ten more years passed before Epstein was arrested again and charged in federal court with trafficking of minors in New York. He was found dead in a Manhattan jail cell on Aug. 10, 2019, and his death was ruled a suicide.
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