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Committee

The House investigative committee has published a batch of approximately 70 images from the estate of former found guilty sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This represents the third disclosure from a larger collection of over 95,000 photographs the committee has acquired from Epstein's estate. It features pictures of excerpts from the literary work Lolita scrawled across a female's body, and redacted photos of women's international passports.

This release comes hours before the 19 December cut-off for the DOJ to make public each documents related to its inquiry into Epstein.

"These photographs bring up more questions about what exactly the Department of Justice has in its custody," stated the ranking member of the panel, Robert Garcia.

Contents in the Photos Released

A number of the images published on this week depict Epstein in discussion with academic and activist Noam Chomsky on a private plane; Bill Gates standing alongside a woman whose features is redacted; Steve Bannon seated at a table facing Epstein, and previous Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Committee

These are the latest affluent, influential men to be seen in Epstein property images released by the committee - earlier disclosed pictures also include US President Donald Trump and ex-president Bill Clinton, as well as director Woody Allen, previous US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and other figures.

Being pictured in the images is not evidence of any wrongdoing, and several of the pictured men have stated they were not participating in Epstein's unlawful actions.

In a announcement accompanying the image release, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee stated the Epstein property holders did not provide explanatory details or dates for the images.

"Photographs were picked to offer the general populace with openness into a illustrative selection of the photos received from the holdings, and to provide insights into Epstein's network and his profoundly alarming actions," the release states.

Oversight Panel

The release also contains several photographs of excerpts from the Vladimir Nabokov novel Lolita written in dark ink across various areas of a woman's body, such as her torso, foot, pelvis, and rear. Lolita narrates the story of a minor who was manipulated by a adult literature professor.

One quote from the novel scrawled across a woman's chest reads, "Lolita's name: the end of the tongue traveling of three steps down the palate to alight, at three, on the teeth".

There are also a series of photographs of female passports and identification documents from countries globally, like Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Committee

Most of the data on the IDs, including identities and dates of birth, is censored but the panel indicated in a press release that the passports belong to "individuals whom Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators were involved with".

An additional photo depicts Epstein seated at a desk intimately surrounded by three individuals whose faces have been redacted - a first has her hand on Epstein's chest under his garment, and another individual is bending to view a close-by laptop. Epstein appears to be helping the final person attach a piece of jewelry.

Committee

An additional photo disclosed is a screenshot of SMS messages from an unknown individual who claims they have been provided "some girls" and are requesting "$1000 for each individual".

Image Disclosure Comes Ahead of DOJ Deadline

The panel has a vast number of photographs in its holdings from the Epstein estate, which are "simultaneously disturbing and ordinary," its announcement on recently clarified.

The House Oversight Committee first subpoenaed the holdings of Epstein, who passed away in a New York correctional facility in 2019 while awaiting trial on accusations of sex trafficking, in August.

The images and records the Epstein property gave to the panel are separate from what is largely referred to "the Epstein files". That material are records under the DOJ's custody connected to its own inquiry into Epstein.

In accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which the President signed into law in November, the DOJ has a deadline of 19 December to disclose its documents. The scope of what is contained in the DOJ's documents is unclear, and it's expected that a significant portion of the information will be extensively redacted, akin to the committee's releases