NBC Publishes Investigation Citing DOJ Epstein Library Records That Report Women Described Sexual Encounters During Epstein's Palm Beach Work Release

On June 13, 2026 (NBC publication date), NBC News published an investigation by Jon Schuppe and Justin Goldman saying that authorities in a Palm Beach minimum-security jail “granted him enormous freedom that he used to continue to exploit and allegedly abuse women”. A rewrite of the piece relays NBC’s count of women as at least five, drawn from FBI interview summaries and public records. NBC’s full text is subscriber-gated; the count is secondary and the sentence from NBC itself is its lede only.

What the DOJ records show

Two documents in the Justice Department’s Epstein Library bear on this. Victims are not named here.

• SDNY memo dated December 19, 2019 (document date). The memo records that “While Epstein was on work release, a number of women visited him at his office and would watch movies with him on a couch,” and that “Most nights, she and Epstein would park near the jail and have sex in the back of the car”.
• FBI interview report, continuation pages, interview dated 08/13/2020 (interview date). A woman’s account, names redacted, records that she “remembered having to sign in with a plain clothed sheriff” and that “the sexual encounters happened at least twice”. The redacted narrative does not date the encounters in its own words; it places the sign-in and the encounters right after a statement about work release, so the tie to the work-release period is the document’s context, not a stated date.

CNN separately reported in July 2026 that two women, unnamed at their request, said they were abused at the Florida Science Foundation office.

What the state probe examined

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s investigative summary dated March 18, 2021 (document date) concluded that “no evidence was developed to substantiate that any identified PBSO member engaged in criminal activity” in housing and supervising Epstein. The summary says the inquiry “pertained to determining if any criminal violations occurred on the part of PBSO members”. The two federal documents carry dates of December 19, 2019 and 08/13/2020, both before March 18, 2021.

Why it matters

The function of the state probe was to test PBSO members’ conduct through PBSO’s own records and personnel; the visitor logs had been destroyed under retention schedules. Federal prosecutors and the FBI were at the same time collecting women’s accounts of what happened inside the work-release hours. The two bodies of record answer different questions and neither sets the other aside.

Research Gaps

• NBC full text (subscriber-gated): confirm the count and which Library documents it cites.
• Whether FDLE or the 19th Circuit State Attorney’s Office ever received the SDNY or FBI interview material.
• The Library’s other FBI interview reports that mention work release.

Related Entries

• 2019-08-06–desantis-signs-eo-19-183-assigns-fdle-and-special-prosecutor-to-pbso-epstein-work-release-probe
• 2021-03-18–fdle-investigative-summary-ei-73-8674-finds-no-evidence-of-pbso-criminal-activity-epstein-work-release-visitor-logs-destroyed