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Committee

The House investigative committee has made public a collection of approximately 70 images obtained from the property of late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This represents the third such publication from a tranche of in excess of 95,000 photos the body has obtained from Epstein's holdings. It contains photographs of passages from the literary work Lolita inscribed across a female's body, and obscured photos of female foreign passports.

This release comes just hours before the 19 December deadline for the DOJ to release all documents connected to its investigation into Epstein.

"These latest photographs pose 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 Photographs Released

A number of the photographs made public on Thursday feature Epstein in discussion with academic and activist Noam Chomsky aboard a private plane; Bill Gates seen next to a female whose identity is redacted; Steve Bannon sitting at a desk opposite Epstein, and previous Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Committee

These are the latest affluent, prominent individuals to be photographed in Epstein property images published by the House Oversight Committee - formerly published pictures also show US President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton, as well as director Woody Allen, former US treasury secretary Larry Summers, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and additional individuals.

Appearing in the photos is not indication of any illegal activity, and a number of the featured men have stated they were in no way implicated in Epstein's unlawful actions.

In a statement issued alongside the photo publication, Democratic members on the US House Oversight Committee stated the Epstein property holders did not offer context or dates for the photographs.

"Photos were selected to offer the American people with openness into a typical cross-section of the photographs obtained from the property, and to provide insights into Epstein's associates and his extremely troubling activities," the announcement says.

Committee

The publication also contains multiple photos of quotes from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita penned in dark ink across various areas of a woman's body, including her torso, lower extremity, hipbone, and rear. Lolita tells the story of a minor who was manipulated by a adult literature professor.

An example of a passage from the work written across a woman's upper body states, "Lolita's name: the end of the tongue traveling of three steps down the mouth to land, at three, on the teeth".

There are also a series of photos of women's travel documents and identification documents from nations worldwide, including Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Oversight Panel

The majority of the details on the papers, like names and birth dates, is redacted but the House Oversight Committee stated in a press release that the travel documents are associated with "women whom Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators were engaging".

An additional photograph features Epstein sitting at a workstation in close proximity flanked by three women whose faces have been censored - one has her palm on Epstein's chest under his clothing, and another is bending to view a nearby device. Epstein seems to be aiding the final person attach a wristband.

Investigative Body

Another image made public is a screenshot of SMS messages from an unnamed person who claims they have been provided "a number of girls" and are demanding "$one thousand dollars for each individual".

Photograph Release Occurs Before DOJ Cut-off

The panel has many thousands of photos in its holdings from the Epstein holdings, which are "at once explicit and ordinary," its statement on this week noted.

The oversight panel first subpoenaed the property of Epstein, who was found dead in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on allegations of sex trafficking, in August.

The photographs and records the Epstein estate gave to the panel are distinct from what is largely termed "the Epstein files". Those files are documents under the Department of Justice's possession related to its own investigation into Epstein.

In accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which the President signed into law in November, the DOJ has a deadline of 19 December to release its files. The extent of what's found in the DOJ's documents is unclear, and it's likely that much of the information will be heavily censored, similar to House Oversight Committee documents