Sky News has found an email exchange from 2014 showing that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein asked a member of staff to install hidden video cameras at his home in Palm Beach, Florida.
The aide told Epstein that he planned to hide them in tissue boxes at the house.
The emails were among millions of documents released by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) last month.
In an email on 5 February 2014, Epstein instructed the associate: “Let’s get three motion detected hidden cameras, that record, thanks.” (sic)
Five hours later, he received a reply: “Jeffrey, I already two purchased the Motion sensor camera from the Spy Store in fort Lauderdale yesterday, I charged them last night and figuring our (sic) how to work them as we speak … I’m installing them into Kleenex boxes now.”
The Sky News Data & Forensics team has been reviewing more than a thousand fragmented videos released by the DoJ.
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Many of them appear to have been filmed in Epstein’s office at his Florida home.
One surveillance video we found shows a man, who appears to be Epstein, speaking to women in that room.
Another shows a woman kneeling next to him.
Sky News is unable to confirm when the footage on the office cameras was filmed.
We know from police documents that victims feared they were being secretly recorded.
These newly uncovered emails and images analysed by Sky News suggest that was indeed the case.
US attorney general accused of ‘lacking empathy’
It comes after Donald Trump’s attorney general Pam Bondi clashed repeatedly with critics during a lengthy committee hearing earlier this week.
On Wednesday, Ms Bondi gave her first sworn testimony since the release of the Epstein files, which at times descended into a shouting match with Democrats.
Epstein survivors later accused her of lacking empathy and humanity, while critics claimed that because not all documents have been released, and many have been heavily redacted, some powerful figures are still being protected.
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Ms Bondi – who as head of the DoJ is ultimately in charge of the files’ release – defended the way the process had been handled and said she was “deeply sorry for what any victim has been through, especially as a result of that monster”.
However, the US attorney general refused to take personal responsibility for initial failures to hide the names of some victims in the files and said staff had done their best under pressure.
