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Investigative Body

The House Oversight Committee has released a batch of around 70 images from the estate of late adjudicated individual convicted of sex crimes Jeffrey Epstein.

This represents the third such disclosure from a larger collection of more than 95,000 images the panel has acquired from Epstein's holdings. It contains pictures of quotes from the book Lolita written across a woman's body, and redacted pictures of female international passports.

This release comes hours before the 19th of December deadline for the Department of Justice to disclose all documents associated with its probe into Epstein.

"These latest photographs bring up additional inquiries about exactly what the Department of Justice has in its custody," remarked the ranking member of the committee, Robert Garcia.

Contents in the Photos Made Public

Some of the photos released on this week feature Epstein speaking with professor and activist Noam Chomsky inside a private plane; Bill Gates seen beside a woman whose features is redacted; Steve Bannon seated at a table opposite Epstein, and previous Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner event.

Committee

These are the latest wealthy, influential men to be seen in Epstein property images published by the committee - earlier disclosed photos also show US President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton, as well as director Woody Allen, former US treasury secretary Larry Summers, attorney Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and others.

Appearing in the images is not indication of any misconduct, and a number of the featured individuals have said they were never implicated in Epstein's criminal activity.

In a statement accompanying the image release, Lawmakers on the US House Oversight Committee noted the Epstein estate's representatives did not supply background information or timeframes for the images.

"Photographs were picked to offer the general populace with clarity into a representative sample of the photos acquired from the estate, and to provide understanding into Epstein's circle and his profoundly disturbing activities," the release reads.

Committee

The publication also includes a number of photos of quotes from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita written in ink across several locations of a woman's body, like her chest, feet, hipbone, and spine. Lolita tells the account of a minor who was manipulated by a middle-aged literature professor.

One excerpt from the novel written across a female's chest states, "Lolita's name: the point 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 images of women's identification and official papers from nations around the world, like Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Committee

A large portion of the details on the IDs, including identities and birth dates, is redacted but the panel said in a press release that the travel documents belong to "women whom Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators were involved with".

An additional photograph shows Epstein positioned at a table in close proximity in the company of three women whose faces have been obscured - one individual has her palm on Epstein's torso under his clothing, and another is crouching to look at a close-by device. Epstein seems to be helping the final person attach a piece of jewelry.

Oversight Panel

A further photo made public is a image of text messages from an unknown sender who states they have been provided "some girls" and are demanding "$1000 per female".

Photo Release Occurs Ahead of DOJ Due Date

The body has many thousands of photographs in its custody from the Epstein estate, which are "both graphic and everyday," its statement on this week explained.

The Congressional committee first subpoenaed the property of Epstein, who died in a New York correctional facility in 2019 while pending legal proceedings on accusations of sex trafficking, in August.

The images and records the Epstein estate submitted to the panel are separate from what is often referred to "the Epstein documents". Those are documents under the justice department's possession connected to its separate investigation into Epstein.

Pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Donald Trump made law last month, the DOJ has a deadline of 19 December to release its files. The scope of the contents found in the DOJ's files is unknown, and it's probable that a significant portion of the material will be heavily redacted, similar to House Oversight Committee materials