Late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein appears to have successfully hidden a decade's worth of potential evidence of his crimes from investigators, according to newly released Justice Department documents and related correspondence.
The records, made public this month, indicate that Epstein's lawyers and private investigators worked systematically to remove computers, photographs, and other sensitive materials from his Florida estate in the mid-2000s as local and federal probes intensified ahead of his controversial 2008 plea deal.
Internal emails and memos suggest those items were later dispersed to at least six storage units across the United States, as well as facilities linked to his properties in New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to ABC News.
A memo cited in the documents describes a private investigator clearing Epstein's Palm Beach home of more than 100 potential evidence items, including three computers, 29 bound phone directories, a list of local masseuses, and photos of nude or partially nude women, at least two of whom appeared to be minors based on notations such as "Class of 2005."
An FBI agent later wrote in a sealed filing that the computers and other materials "were purposely removed" in anticipation of a police raid and could contain critical evidence, including surveillance footage.
According to the newly unsealed filings, investigators believed at least one of the missing computers had been hard-wired to Epstein's home security system and might have captured video of teenage girls entering and leaving the residence.
A 2020 report by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, also referenced in the records, concluded that the computers likely stored "potentially critical" evidence that could have changed the trajectory of the original case, CBS News reported.
Email exchanges show Epstein continued paying to keep boxes of material in commercial storage through at least 2010, well after he completed his Florida sentence.
The documents indicate that associates discussed cloning hard drives and relocating CDs and computer equipment from his private island, Little Saint James, to secret storage sites, but they do not clarify what ultimately happened to those copies.
Law enforcement agencies investigating Epstein in New York more than a decade later seized dozens of electronic devices from his Manhattan townhouse and his island compound, yet there is no public record that any of the external storage units were ever found or searched.
The apparent failure to locate that trove of material, despite multiple inquiries into Epstein's activities before and after his 2019 death in jail, has renewed questions about how thoroughly authorities pursued potential evidence and whether additional victims and collaborators remain unidentified, as per the Telegraph.
