Jeffrey Epstein, whose victims believed he was secretly filming them, directed one of his aides to obtain hidden video cameras, apparently to be set up in his home in Palm Beach, Fla., according to a recently released 2014 email.
“Lets get three motion detected hidden cameras, that record,” Mr. Epstein wrote to Larry Visoski, his longtime pilot, who has said he at times set up audio and video equipment for Mr. Epstein in his residences.
Mr. Visoski replied that he had already purchased two motion-sensor cameras from a store that sold surveillance equipment in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and was in the process of figuring out how they worked. “Its amazing how small they are,” he wrote, adding that they could record for 64 hours. “I’m installing them into Kleenex boxes now. I’ll bring them by later today.”
The purpose of the cameras was not clear. A number of Mr. Epstein’s victims have said they suspected they were being recorded, which has fueled speculation that he was collecting compromising information on his powerful acquaintances. But no evidence has emerged to prove those claims.
Mr. Visoski did not respond to a request for comment.
The February 2014 email, which was previously reported by The Telegraph, is the latest indication that Mr. Epstein installed surveillance cameras inside his homes. Last summer, The New York Times published photos that showed a camera mounted in the corner of the master bedroom in his palatial Upper East Side townhouse. Another was nestled in the moldings of an adjoining room. The Times also reviewed a photo that showed a camera near a suite of bathrooms on the same floor as Mr. Epstein’s bedroom.
The presence of those cameras conflicts with what federal law enforcement officials have said in the past.
Last March, for example, federal prosecutors in Manhattan provided top F.B.I. officials with a description of the video evidence that investigators had recovered from Mr. Epstein’s properties. The email said that when F.B.I. agents raided his New York and U.S. Virgin Islands homes after he was charged with sex trafficking in July 2019, they searched for surveillance cameras.
“My understanding from the case agent is that there were no cameras found inside any bedrooms or living areas of either residence,” read the email, which was recently released by the Justice Department. The email added that the only cameras the F.B.I. found were near the residences’ entryways.
A Justice Department spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Epstein over the years discussed surveillance cameras in various contexts. In a 2012 email, he asked an acquaintance to “please suggst some web enabled secuirty surveillance cameras.” Three years later, someone emailed him a link to an article in a British newspaper that raised the possibility of Mr. Epstein secretly filming guests via hidden bedroom cameras.
“All made up,” Mr. Epstein replied. “They just write what they want.”
There is no question that Mr. Epstein previously installed cameras in at least one of his properties.
In 2005, as the police in Palm Beach were investigating Mr. Epstein for raping and sexually abusing girls, detectives searched his home. A police official later wrote in an incident report that he “located two covert (hidden) cameras.” Both were stashed inside clocks, one in Mr. Epstein’s garage and the other beside his desk.
At the time of his 2019 arrest, a room in Mr. Epstein’s New York house — down a hallway from the grand foyer — had monitors that were apparently hooked up to video cameras trained on the outside and entryway of Mr. Epstein’s house, according to photos reviewed by The Times. A red sign on the door read “24 Hour Video Surveillance.”
David Enrich is a deputy investigations editor for The Times. He writes about law and business.
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