What evidence did investigators seize at Little Saint James in 2019 and 2020, and which agencies catalogued it?
Executive summary
Investigators who searched Little Saint James in August 2019 removed electronic devices, hard-copy materials and other physical items that the government later described as “a significant amount of material,” including hundreds of gigabytes of data; those items were seized by FBI agents working with New York investigators and processed under U.S. Department of Justice supervision and Southern District of New York (SDNY) authority, while the U.S. Virgin Islands attorney general later used some of the materials in civil actions and public releases [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].
1. What was taken in the August 2019 search: devices, data and physical evidence
FBI agents and New York police boarded Little Saint James days after Jeffrey Epstein’s death and removed multiple “subject devices” — computers, phones and storage media — recovered during the island search on or about August 12, 2019, according to an SDNY search-and-seizure warrant that lists devices recovered from specific rooms on the property [4] [1]. The FBI later summarized the haul as “a significant amount of material, including more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence,” language that appears in subsequent agency memos and reporting about what the search yielded [2] [3]. News agencies reporting on photographs and images released in late 2020 and 2025 also document the inventory of physical items photographed or catalogued, including framed photographs, stacked furniture and what has been described as a dental chair and other unusual fixtures seen in inventory photos [5] [6].
2. Which agencies seized and catalogued the evidence
The initial seizure was conducted by the FBI with assistance from New York law enforcement personnel — reporting identifies both FBI agents and New York Police Department investigators at the scene — and the collection was undertaken pursuant to federal warrants and SDNY oversight [1] [2] [4]. The Department of Justice (DOJ) and SDNY prosecutors then authorized review of electronically stored information (ESI) from the seized devices under search-warrant protocols, as the warrant and later DOJ file releases make explicit [4] [5]. Separately, the U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General’s office pursued civil litigation and public disclosure based on materials tied to the island, and that office publicly described evidence it cited — including references to databases and visitor records — in its 2020 complaint and in press statements [7] [8].
3. What was later catalogued, released or reported about the contents
Public releases and media reporting over 2020–2025 document that the seized collection included hundreds of gigabytes of digital files and numerous photographs and physical items, some of which were redacted or selectively released by DOJ and by the Virgin Islands AG in litigation; newly released images from 2020 exhibit stacked furniture, artwork removed from walls, a dental chair and a room with a chalkboard bearing words such as “truth,” “deception” and “power,” all consistent with metadata placing some photos in 2020 [5] [6]. Journalistic investigations and data-leak analyses have also pointed to ancillary digital sources — location-data sets and visitor lists compiled by third-party brokers — that corroborate traffic to Little Saint James and have been used by reporters to infer visitor patterns, although those are separate from the government’s seizure [9].
4. Caveats, contested points and gaps in public record
Public documents show a substantial seizure and cataloguing effort, but the full, itemized inventory and chain-of-custody details have not been fully published; SDNY warrants and DOJ releases provide frameworks and examples, but do not amount to a complete public ledger accessible in reporting cited here [4] [5]. Legal observers noted at the time that the only parties able to contest the seizure directly would have been Epstein or residents of the island — a complication rendered moot by Epstein’s death — raising questions that prosecutors and civil litigants later answered through selective disclosure rather than a single comprehensive public catalog [1]. The U.S. Virgin Islands AG used certain materials in its 2020 lawsuit, but press accounts and later releases do not constitute an exhaustive, independent audit of every seized item [7] [8].
5. Bottom line
Federal agents seized electronic devices, storage media, photographs and assorted physical items during the August 2019 search of Little Saint James; those materials — described collectively as hundreds of gigabytes of data plus physical evidence — were seized by the FBI with New York law-enforcement involvement, processed under DOJ/SDNY authority, and were later used and partially disclosed by both the Department of Justice and the U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General in prosecutions, memos and civil filings [4] [1] [2] [5] [7]. Available reporting documents many of the key categories of seized material but stops short of a single, fully public, itemized inventory that answers every chain-of-custody and cataloguing question [4] [5].