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Investigative Body

The House investigative committee has released a set of roughly 70 photographs obtained from the property of late convicted individual convicted of sex crimes Jeffrey Epstein.

This represents the third such publication from a larger collection of more than 95,000 photographs the committee has acquired from Epstein's property. It contains images of passages from the novel Lolita written across a female's body, and redacted photos of women's foreign passports.

This release occurs mere hours before the December 19th deadline for the Justice Department to release all files associated with its inquiry into Epstein.

"These new photographs raise additional questions about what exactly the Justice Department has in its custody," said the Democratic lead of the committee, Robert Garcia.

Contents in the Photos Made Public

Some of the photos published on this week feature Epstein speaking with academic and activist Noam Chomsky on a private jet; Bill Gates positioned alongside a woman whose face is redacted; Steve Bannon seated at a workstation across from Epstein, and previous Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Oversight Panel

These are the most recent high-net-worth, prominent individuals to be photographed in Epstein estate images released by the oversight panel - earlier disclosed images also depict 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.

Appearing in the photographs is is not considered proof of any misconduct, and a number of the photographed individuals have stated they were in no way involved in Epstein's unlawful actions.

In a statement issued alongside the photograph release, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee stated the Epstein estate's representatives did not supply background information or timeframes for the pictures.

"Photographs were chosen to offer the American people with transparency into a typical cross-section of the photographs obtained from the property, and to offer perspectives into Epstein's associates and his extremely troubling behavior," the statement says.

Oversight Panel

The disclosure also features several photographs of passages from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita inscribed in black ink across several locations of a woman's body, like her upper body, foot, hip, and spine. Lolita narrates the account of a young girl who was groomed by a older literature professor.

An example of a passage from the book inscribed across a female's torso reads, "Lo-lee-ta: the end of the tongue making a journey of three steps down the roof of the mouth to land, at three, on the teeth".

Additionally, there are a number of photos of female passports and official papers from countries around the world, including Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Oversight Panel

Most of the details on the documents, such as identities and DOBs, is redacted but the House Oversight Committee indicated in a press release that the travel documents belong to "individuals whom Jeffrey Epstein and his conspirators were involved with".

Another photograph features Epstein positioned at a table intimately flanked by three female figures whose features have been obscured - one has her palm on Epstein's torso under his garment, and another individual is leaning to examine a nearby computer. Epstein can be seen to be helping the final person attach a piece of jewelry.

Committee

Another image released is a image of digital messages from an unknown sender who says they have been supplied "several females" and are demanding "$one thousand dollars per girl".

Image Disclosure Comes Ahead of DOJ Cut-off

The body has a vast number of photographs in its holdings from the Epstein estate, which are "simultaneously disturbing and mundane," its press release on Thursday clarified.

The House Oversight Committee first legally compelled the estate of Epstein, who passed away in a New York jail in 2019 while pending legal proceedings on allegations of sex trafficking crimes, in August.

The photographs and documents the Epstein estate's representatives submitted to the panel are different than what is commonly called "Epstein-related records". Those are records within the DOJ's custody related to its independent investigation into Epstein.

Pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which the President signed into law recently, the DOJ has a deadline of 19 December to publish its files. The extent of what's found in the DOJ's files is not publicly known, and it's likely that much of the material will be extensively obscured, akin to House Oversight Committee releases