By the time Palm Beach, Florida, police raidedJeffrey Epstein'smansion, the evidence they sought was gone. Three computers were missing from the home, leaving only loose wires and keyboards behind.
Newly surfaced documents indicate that Epstein had private investigators remove the computers and lock them in storage units across Palm Beach County and beyond. Epstein continued making monthly payments to one such Royal Palm Beach storage facility until 2019, the year he died by suicide in his Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.
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When asked on Feb. 24 whether it had searched any of Epstein's storage units or recovered the computers hidden in 2005, the FBI referred all inquiries to the Department of Justice, which did not respond to a request for comment. Stephen Kiraly, the private investigator whose Pinellas County firm handled the computers, declined to comment.
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"I apologize, but under state law I can't divulge any information without written consent from the client or his estate," Kiraly said.
Epstein's team fought to keep computers from FBI
The FBI believed a private investigator near Miami named Paul Lavery took the three computers and gave them to Bill Riley, a private investigator with the firm Riley Kiraly. An email from Riley to Epstein confirmed it.
"Over the weekend I learned that plaintiff's counsel are looking to get from me the computers and paperwork I took from Jeff's house prior to the Search Warrant," Rileywrote, the emailamong the thousands recently produced by the DOJ. "I have them locked in storage and would like to know what to do with them."
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Lavery, when asked what he removed from the home, said he "took the items that were given to me," according tohandwritten notes from a 2007 interview. He said he delivered the computers to Riley's office and had "never seen the equipment again."
Prosecutors suspected the computers contained evidence relevant to Epstein's sex-trafficking operation, including emails arranging encounters with underage girls, digital records documenting payments and surveillance camera footage generated inside Epstein's mansion.
By 2007, a federal grand jury had issued subpoenas ordering the private investigators to appear before the grand jury and produce all computer equipment removed from Epstein's Palm Beach residence, any computers ever owned by Epstein and records documenting the relationship between Epstein and the investigators.
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Although the subpoenas were directed at the private investigators, Epstein's attorneys – who, on paper, hired the investigators – moved quickly to intervene. They asked a federal judge to quash the subpoenas, arguing that forcing investigators to turn over the computers would violate Epstein's constitutional rights and pierce the confidentiality of his legal defense.
Epstein said the computers, if they existed, were part of his defense preparation and could contain attorney‑client communications or attorney work product. Turning them over would effectively force him to incriminate himself and let prosecutors rummage through private materials unrelated to any crime.
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While federal prosecutors fought to recover the computers, Epstein's legal team was moving to copy them.
According toan unsealed court record, a computer forensics expert named David Kleiman contacted a deputy he knew at the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office in July 2007 and asked whether he could use the agency's hard drive duplication device. Kleiman said he had been hired by Epstein's attorney, Roy Black, to make three copies of each of the three computers.
Kleiman said the job needed to be done as soon as possible, with someone standing by while the process was completed. The deputy declined to provide the equipment as the "machine he wanted to use was not reliable," but he relayed the conversation to the FBI.
Epstein paid for storage units for more than a decade
Billing records show Epstein paid a storage company known as Uncle Bob's more than $370 per month from at least 2003 until 2015, with a final payment in 2016. A separate unit in the Royal Palm Beach area cost him about $140 monthly and appears to have been active until just before his death.
The FBI has not confirmed whether any of the storage units were ever searched. Following raids on Epstein's properties in 2019, the bureau said it seized dozens of electronic devices but found no evidence that Epstein had either maintained blackmail material or recorded the abuse of victims.
The records don't indicate whether the materials inside those lockers were ever destroyed, moved, or retained by Epstein's estate following his death.
Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her athphillips@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post:Epstein hid computers in storage units in Palm Beach County and beyond
By the time Palm Beach, Florida, police raidedJeffrey Epstein'smansion, the evidence they sought was gone. Three comp...
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