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Investigative Body

The House Oversight Committee has made public a batch of around 70 photos secured from the holdings of deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This marks the third such publication from a tranche of over 95,000 images the panel has obtained from Epstein's holdings. It contains images of quotes from the literary work Lolita scrawled across a woman's body, and redacted images of female foreign passports.

This disclosure arrives just hours before the 19th of December due date for the DOJ to release every records related to its probe into Epstein.

"These new photos bring up more questions about what exactly the Justice Department has in its custody," remarked the senior Democrat of the committee, Robert Garcia.

What's in the Photos Made Public

Some of the photographs published on recently feature Epstein in discussion with academic and activist Noam Chomsky inside a private jet; Bill Gates seen alongside a female whose identity is obscured; Steve Bannon seated at a workstation facing Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner event.

Committee

These are the most recent affluent, prominent men to be seen in Epstein's estate photos disclosed by the committee - previously disclosed photos also depict US President Donald Trump and ex-president Bill Clinton, as well as movie director Woody Allen, ex- US treasury secretary Larry Summers, counsel Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and additional individuals.

Being pictured in the photos is is not considered indication of any wrongdoing, and many of the photographed men have stated they were not involved in Epstein's criminal activity.

In a announcement accompanying the image publication, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee stated the Epstein estate's representatives did not supply explanatory details or timeframes for the photographs.

"Photographs were picked to offer the American people with clarity into a representative sample of the photographs obtained from the property, and to provide understanding into Epstein's associates and his exceptionally disturbing activities," the release reads.

Committee

The disclosure also features a number of photographs of quotes from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita penned in ink across various areas of a female's body, like her chest, lower extremity, hipbone, and spine. Lolita recounts the tale of a adolescent who was groomed by a older literature professor.

An example of a quote from the work scrawled across a woman's torso states, "Lo-lee-ta: the end of the tongue traveling of three steps down the mouth to tap, at three, on the teeth".

Additionally, there are a series of images of female passports and official papers from countries globally, including Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Oversight Panel

Most of the details on the IDs, including names and dates of birth, is obscured but the panel said in a announcement that the passports pertain to "females whom Jeffrey Epstein and his associates were engaging".

A further photo features Epstein seated at a workstation in close proximity in the company of three individuals whose faces have been censored - one individual has her hand on Epstein's chest under his clothing, and a second is bending to view a nearby device. Epstein appears to be assisting the third fasten a piece of jewelry.

Investigative Body

Another photograph made public is a screenshot of SMS messages from an unknown sender who says they have been provided "some girls" and are asking for "$one thousand dollars per female".

Image Disclosure Occurs Ahead of DOJ Deadline

The panel has a vast number of photographs in its holdings from the Epstein holdings, which are "at once graphic and everyday," its statement on this week clarified.

The House Oversight Committee first issued a subpoena to the property of Epstein, who died in a New York prison in 2019 while pending legal proceedings on allegations of sex trafficking crimes, in August.

The photos and records the Epstein property submitted to the panel are different than what is commonly called "the Epstein documents". That material are documents under the DOJ's control related to its independent inquiry into Epstein.

Pursuant to the recently passed law, which Donald Trump made law in November, the DOJ has until 19 December to publish its files. The scope of the contents included in the DOJ's documents is not publicly known, and it's probable that a large amount of the content will be significantly redacted, similar to the committee's documents