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Investigative Body

The Congressional oversight panel has made public a batch of roughly 70 photographs secured from the holdings of former adjudicated sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This constitutes the third release from a tranche of over 95,000 photos the committee has acquired from Epstein's property. It includes images of passages from the literary work Lolita inscribed across a female's body, and redacted pictures of female foreign passports.

This disclosure occurs hours before the 19 December deadline for the DOJ to make public all records related to its inquiry into Epstein.

"These new photos pose further inquiries about precisely what the Justice Department has in its holdings," said the Democratic lead of the panel, Robert Garcia.

What's in the Images Disclosed

Some of the images released on recently feature Epstein conversing with academic and activist Noam Chomsky inside a private plane; Bill Gates seen next to a female whose identity is obscured; Steve Bannon sitting at a table across from Epstein, and ex- Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Committee

These are the most recent high-net-worth, influential figures to be seen in Epstein property images released by the House Oversight Committee - formerly disclosed images also include US President Donald Trump and past president Bill Clinton, as well as film director Woody Allen, ex- US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and others.

Appearing in the photographs is does not constitute evidence of any illegal activity, and a number of the featured men have said they were never participating in Epstein's illegal activity.

In a statement released with the photo disclosure, Lawmakers on the US House Oversight Committee said the Epstein estate's representatives did not supply background information or timeframes for the images.

"Images were selected to offer the American people with transparency into a illustrative selection of the images obtained from the holdings, and to provide perspectives into Epstein's associates and his profoundly troubling activities," the release says.

Oversight Panel

The disclosure also features multiple photographs of quotes from the Vladimir Nabokov novel Lolita written in black ink across different parts of a woman's body, like her upper body, foot, hip, and back. Lolita tells the story of a young girl who was exploited by a middle-aged literature professor.

An example of a quote from the book scrawled across a female's chest says, "Lo-lee-ta: the point of the tongue making a journey of three steps down the roof of the mouth to land, at three, on the teeth".

There are also a number of images of female travel documents and ID papers from states around the world, like Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Committee

The majority of the details on the papers, like identities and DOBs, is obscured but the panel stated in a statement that the passports are associated with "females whom Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators were engaging".

An additional photograph shows Epstein seated at a table closely surrounded by three individuals whose faces have been redacted - one individual has her palm on Epstein's torso under his shirt, and a second is crouching to examine a nearby computer. Epstein seems to be helping the third put on a bracelet.

Committee

A further photo disclosed is a capture of text messages from an unnamed person who says they have been sent "several females" and are requesting "$1000 per girl".

Photo Disclosure Arrives Ahead of DOJ Cut-off

The panel has a vast number of photos in its custody from the Epstein estate, which are "both explicit and ordinary," its announcement on recently explained.

The oversight panel first subpoenaed the property of Epstein, who passed away in a New York prison in 2019 while pending legal proceedings on accusations of human trafficking, in August.

The photographs and files the Epstein estate's representatives provided to the committee are different than what is largely referred to "the Epstein documents". Those are documents under the Department of Justice's control related to its own inquiry into Epstein.

In accordance with the recently passed law, which Donald Trump made law recently, the DOJ has until 19 December to disclose its documents. The scope of the contents contained in the DOJ's files is unknown, and it's likely that a large amount of the material will be significantly censored, similar to the committee's materials