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Committee

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

This constitutes the third release from a tranche of over 95,000 photos the body has secured from Epstein's property. It features pictures of excerpts from the book Lolita scrawled across a woman's body, and redacted images of women's overseas passports.

This action occurs hours before the 19 December deadline for the Department of Justice to release each records related to its probe into Epstein.

"These new photos raise additional questions about exactly what the DOJ has in its custody," said the senior Democrat of the committee, Robert Garcia.

What is in the Photographs Disclosed

Some of the photos released on Thursday depict Epstein in discussion with scholar and advocate Noam Chomsky inside a private plane; Bill Gates standing alongside a individual whose identity is censored; Steve Bannon positioned at a desk facing Epstein, and previous Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a evening meal.

Committee

These are the newest wealthy, powerful figures to be photographed in Epstein's estate images published by the committee - formerly released photos also include US President Donald Trump and past president Bill Clinton, as well as director Woody Allen, former US treasury secretary Larry Summers, counsel Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and additional individuals.

Being pictured in the images is does not constitute evidence of any misconduct, and many of the pictured men have stated they were in no way implicated in Epstein's criminal activity.

In a statement accompanying the image disclosure, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee noted the Epstein property holders did not supply explanatory details or timeframes for the pictures.

"Photos were selected to provide the general populace with openness into a illustrative selection of the photographs obtained from the holdings, and to give perspectives into Epstein's associates and his profoundly alarming actions," the release states.

Investigative Body

The disclosure also features a number of images of passages from the Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita inscribed in black ink across several locations of a woman's body, such as her torso, feet, hip, and spine. Lolita tells the story of a adolescent who was manipulated by a older literature professor.

A particular passage from the work written across a female's upper body says, "Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue making a journey of three steps down the mouth to tap, at three, on the teeth".

There are also a collection of photos of women's identification and ID papers from nations worldwide, like Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Oversight Panel

A large portion of the data on the IDs, like names and dates of birth, is obscured but the House Oversight Committee said in a statement that the passports belong to "females whom Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators were engaging".

Another photograph shows Epstein positioned at a desk closely flanked by three female figures whose identities have been redacted - a first has her palm on Epstein's chest under his clothing, and another is crouching to look at a nearby device. Epstein can be seen to be helping the final person attach a piece of jewelry.

Committee

An additional image disclosed is a screenshot of SMS messages from an unknown sender who claims they have been sent "a number of girls" and are asking for "$one thousand dollars for each individual".

Photo Publication Comes Ahead of DOJ Due Date

The committee has thousands of photos in its custody from the Epstein property, which are "at once disturbing and mundane," its statement on Thursday clarified.

The House Oversight Committee first legally compelled the property of Epstein, who died in a New York prison in 2019 while pending legal proceedings on charges of human trafficking, in August.

The images and records the Epstein property gave to the panel are distinct from what is often termed "the Epstein documents". Those are documents within the Department of Justice's custody connected to its separate inquiry into Epstein.

In accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Donald Trump made law recently, the DOJ has until the date of 19 December to disclose its records. The scope of what's contained in the DOJ's documents is not publicly known, and it's probable that much of the content will be significantly obscured, akin to the committee's materials