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Investigative Body

The House Oversight Committee has made public a set of around 70 images obtained from the property of deceased adjudicated sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This constitutes the latest in a series of disclosure from a larger collection of in excess of 95,000 images the body has secured from Epstein's estate. It includes images of excerpts from the book Lolita scrawled across a woman's body, and redacted images of women's international passports.

This disclosure arrives just hours before the 19th of December cut-off for the Department of Justice to make public every files related to its probe into Epstein.

"These new photographs bring up more questions about precisely what the Justice Department has in its holdings," remarked the Democratic lead of the panel, Robert Garcia.

What's in the Photographs Released

A number of the images published on this week feature Epstein conversing with professor and activist Noam Chomsky aboard a private plane; Bill Gates standing next to a individual whose features is obscured; Steve Bannon seated at a table across from Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Oversight Panel

These are the most recent high-net-worth, prominent individuals to be seen in Epstein estate photographs published by the committee - earlier published pictures also depict US President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton, as well as director Woody Allen, ex- US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, attorney Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and others.

Appearing in the photographs is not indication of any illegal activity, and a number of the featured individuals have said they were not implicated in Epstein's criminal activity.

In a statement accompanying the photograph release, Democratic members on the US House Oversight Committee said the Epstein estate did not provide background information or timings for the pictures.

"Images were selected to furnish the public with clarity into a illustrative selection of the images acquired from the property, and to provide perspectives into Epstein's network and his extremely disturbing behavior," the release reads.

Oversight Panel

The disclosure also includes several photographs of excerpts from the Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita penned in black ink across several locations of a woman's body, such as her chest, lower extremity, pelvis, and rear. Lolita narrates the tale of a young girl who was exploited by a middle-aged literature professor.

A particular excerpt from the book written across a female's torso reads, "Lolita: the point of the tongue making a journey of three steps down the roof of the mouth to tap, at three, on the teeth".

There are also a collection of photographs of female passports and official papers from countries around the world, like Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Investigative Body

The majority of the details on the IDs, including identities and dates of birth, is censored but the panel said in a statement that the passports are associated with "individuals whom Jeffrey Epstein and his associates were engaging".

Another photo features Epstein sitting at a desk intimately flanked by three female figures whose features have been redacted - one has her palm on Epstein's chest under his clothing, and another individual is bending to examine a close-by laptop. Epstein appears to be aiding the third individual put on a bracelet.

Investigative Body

An additional photo released is a screenshot of text messages from an unnamed individual who states they have been provided "a number of girls" and are requesting "$1000 per girl".

Image Release Arrives Prior to DOJ Deadline

The committee has many thousands of photographs in its custody from the Epstein holdings, which are "both explicit and ordinary," its press release on this week clarified.

The Congressional committee first legally compelled the holdings of Epstein, who was found dead in a New York prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of human trafficking, in August.

The images and documents the Epstein property provided to the committee are separate from what is commonly referred to "Epstein-related records". Those are documents under the justice department's control related to its independent inquiry into Epstein.

In accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Trump made law in November, the DOJ has until the date of 19 December to publish its files. The scope of what's contained in the DOJ's records is unknown, and it's probable that a large amount of the information will be extensively redacted, comparable to the committee's materials