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Investigative Body

The House investigative committee has published a batch of approximately 70 photographs obtained from the property of late found guilty individual convicted of sex crimes Jeffrey Epstein.

This constitutes the third such disclosure from a cache of over 95,000 photographs the panel has obtained from Epstein's holdings. It contains images of passages from the book Lolita inscribed across a woman's body, and redacted photos of women's overseas passports.

This action comes hours before the December 19th deadline for the DOJ to disclose all files associated with its inquiry into Epstein.

"These new photos bring up additional questions about exactly what the DOJ has in its possession," remarked the Democratic lead of the panel, Robert Garcia.

Contents in the Photos Made Public

A number of the photos made public on this week depict Epstein in discussion with professor and activist Noam Chomsky inside a private jet; Bill Gates standing alongside a woman whose face is obscured; Steve Bannon sitting at a workstation opposite Epstein, and previous Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a evening meal.

Oversight Panel

These are the most recent wealthy, powerful men to be seen in Epstein property photos published by the committee - formerly released images also include US President Donald Trump and past president Bill Clinton, as well as movie director Woody Allen, previous US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, counsel Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and others.

Being pictured in the images is does not constitute indication of any wrongdoing, and many of the pictured individuals have stated they were never implicated in Epstein's unlawful actions.

In a announcement issued alongside the photograph release, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee noted the Epstein estate did not provide context or dates for the photographs.

"Photos were picked to furnish the American people with transparency into a illustrative selection of the photos acquired from the estate, and to offer understanding into Epstein's associates and his profoundly alarming actions," the announcement says.

Oversight Panel

The disclosure also includes several images of passages from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita written in ink across several locations of a female's body, like her chest, lower extremity, pelvis, and spine. Lolita tells the story of a young girl who was groomed by a middle-aged literature professor.

One excerpt from the book written across a female's torso states, "Lo-lee-ta: the end of the tongue traveling of three steps down the mouth to land, at three, on the teeth".

The release also contains a number of photographs of women's passports and official papers from countries worldwide, including Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Committee

A large portion of the information on the documents, such as identities and birth dates, is redacted but the committee indicated in a press release that the passports belong to "women whom Jeffrey Epstein and his associates were interacting with".

An additional image shows Epstein seated at a desk in close proximity surrounded by three individuals whose faces have been censored - one individual has her hand on Epstein's upper body under his garment, and a second is bending to view a adjacent laptop. Epstein can be seen to be aiding the third individual put on a piece of jewelry.

Investigative Body

Another image disclosed is a image of text messages from an unknown sender who states they have been supplied "a number of girls" and are requesting "$one thousand dollars per female".

Photo Release Occurs Prior to DOJ Cut-off

The panel has thousands of photographs in its possession from the Epstein property, which are "at once disturbing and everyday," its press release on recently clarified.

The oversight panel first legally compelled the estate of Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on allegations of sex trafficking, in August.

The images and files the Epstein estate's representatives provided to the body are distinct from what is often called "the Epstein documents". Those are papers in the DOJ's control associated with its own inquiry into Epstein.

Pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Trump signed into law last month, the DOJ has until the date of 19 December to disclose its files. The extent of what is included in the DOJ's files is unclear, and it's likely that much of the material will be significantly redacted, similar to the committee's materials