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Oversight Panel

The House investigative committee has made public a batch of roughly 70 images from the estate of former adjudicated sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.

This constitutes the latest in a series of disclosure from a cache of more than 95,000 photographs the committee has obtained from Epstein's property. It contains photographs of quotes from the literary work Lolita scrawled across a woman's body, and censored images of female foreign passports.

This action comes mere hours before the December 19th due date for the Department of Justice to release every records related to its inquiry into Epstein.

"These images raise additional inquiries about exactly what the Department of Justice has in its possession," stated the Democratic lead of the committee, Robert Garcia.

What is in the Photos Released

Some of the photos published on Thursday depict Epstein in discussion with scholar and advocate Noam Chomsky aboard a private plane; Bill Gates standing beside a female whose features is obscured; Steve Bannon positioned at a workstation opposite Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner event.

Oversight Panel

These are the newest high-net-worth, prominent men to be pictured in Epstein estate images published by the oversight panel - previously published images also show US President Donald Trump and past president Bill Clinton, as well as director Woody Allen, previous US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and other figures.

Being pictured in the photographs is is not considered indication of any misconduct, and a number of the photographed men have stated they were in no way participating in Epstein's illegal activity.

In a statement issued alongside the photograph disclosure, Democratic members on the US House Oversight Committee stated the Epstein property holders did not provide explanatory details or timeframes for the pictures.

"Photos were chosen to provide the American people with transparency into a representative sample of the photos obtained from the estate, and to provide insights into Epstein's circle and his extremely disturbing actions," the announcement states.

Committee

The release also includes multiple photographs of quotes from the Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita written in black ink across several locations of a woman's body, including her torso, foot, hip, and back. Lolita tells the account of a minor who was groomed by a older literature professor.

A particular quote from the book written across a woman's chest says, "Lolita: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the mouth to tap, at three, on the teeth".

Additionally, there are a number of photos of women's passports and identification documents from states globally, like Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Oversight Panel

Most of the details on the IDs, like names and birth dates, is redacted but the committee indicated in a announcement that the passports belong to "individuals whom Jeffrey Epstein and his conspirators were engaging".

Another photo features Epstein positioned at a desk intimately flanked by three individuals whose faces have been redacted - one has her palm on Epstein's upper body under his garment, and a second is crouching to examine a nearby laptop. Epstein appears to be aiding the final person fasten a wristband.

Oversight Panel

A further photo made public is a image of SMS messages from an unidentified sender who claims they have been supplied "several females" and are requesting "$$1,000 for each individual".

Image Release Occurs Before DOJ Cut-off

The body has thousands of photos in its possession from the Epstein holdings, which are "at once graphic and ordinary," its press release on this week noted.

The House Oversight Committee first issued a subpoena to the holdings of Epstein, who was found dead in a New York prison in 2019 while pending legal proceedings on charges of sex trafficking crimes, in August.

The images and files the Epstein estate submitted to the body are separate from what is commonly called "the Epstein documents". Those files are records under the DOJ's custody associated with its independent probe into Epstein.

Pursuant to the recently passed law, which the President enacted last month, the DOJ has until 19 December to publish its records. The full nature of what is found in the DOJ's records is unclear, and it's probable that a significant portion of the content will be extensively censored, akin to the committee's releases