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Committee

The House investigative committee has published a batch of roughly 70 images from the estate of former adjudicated sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This marks the third such release from a tranche of in excess of 95,000 photographs the panel has acquired from Epstein's holdings. It features images of excerpts from the book Lolita written across a woman's body, and obscured photos of women's international passports.

This release comes mere hours before the 19 December deadline for the DOJ to make public all records related to its investigation into Epstein.

"These latest images raise more queries about exactly what the Department of Justice has in its holdings," remarked the senior Democrat of the committee, Robert Garcia.

What is in the Images Made Public

Several of the photos released on Thursday show Epstein in discussion with academic and activist Noam Chomsky on a private jet; Bill Gates standing beside a woman whose features is obscured; Steve Bannon sitting at a desk facing Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Oversight Panel

These are the newest affluent, powerful individuals to be photographed in Epstein property photos disclosed by the oversight panel - formerly published pictures also depict US President Donald Trump and past president Bill Clinton, as well as director Woody Allen, previous US Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers, counsel Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and others.

Being pictured in the photos is is not considered proof of any illegal activity, and many of the photographed figures have stated they were never implicated in Epstein's criminal activity.

In a statement issued alongside the photo publication, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee said the Epstein property holders did not offer explanatory details or timings for the pictures.

"Photos were chosen to provide the public with transparency into a typical cross-section of the images acquired from the estate, and to give understanding into Epstein's associates and his extremely alarming actions," the announcement says.

Committee

The publication also includes a number of photos of excerpts from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita inscribed in black ink across various areas of a female's body, including her upper body, feet, hip, and spine. Lolita tells the story of a minor who was manipulated by a adult literature professor.

An example of a excerpt from the novel scrawled across a woman's chest says, "Lo-lee-ta: the point of the tongue traveling of three steps down the mouth to alight, at three, on the teeth".

The release also contains a series of photos of female travel documents and identification documents from states worldwide, like Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Investigative Body

Most of the data on the documents, like identities and birth dates, is censored but the committee said in a press release that the travel documents are associated with "women whom Jeffrey Epstein and his associates were interacting with".

An additional photo features Epstein seated at a table intimately flanked by three individuals whose features have been censored - one has her palm on Epstein's torso under his clothing, and another is bending to look at a close-by laptop. Epstein appears to be helping the third individual put on a bracelet.

Investigative Body

Another photo released is a image of SMS messages from an unknown individual who states they have been supplied "some girls" and are requesting "$1000 per girl".

Photo Disclosure Comes Before DOJ Cut-off

The panel has many thousands of images in its custody from the Epstein property, which are "at once disturbing and ordinary," its press release on Thursday clarified.

The House Oversight Committee first legally compelled the estate of Epstein, who was found dead in a New York prison in 2019 while facing trial on allegations of sex trafficking crimes, in August.

The images and files the Epstein estate's representatives submitted to the body are distinct from what is largely referred to "Epstein-related records". Those are papers in the DOJ's control associated with its independent probe into Epstein.

Pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Donald Trump signed into law recently, the DOJ has a deadline of 19 December to release its records. The full nature of what's contained in the DOJ's files is unknown, and it's probable that much of the material will be significantly obscured, comparable to House Oversight Committee materials