🔗 Share this article

Investigative Body

The House investigative committee has published a batch of approximately 70 photographs from the estate of deceased adjudicated sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This marks the third release from a tranche of in excess of 95,000 photos the panel has acquired from Epstein's property. It features pictures of excerpts from the book Lolita inscribed across a female's body, and obscured pictures of female overseas passports.

This action arrives hours before the December 19th due date for the Justice Department to make public every documents associated with its inquiry into Epstein.

"These photos bring up further questions about what exactly the Justice Department has in its custody," stated the Democratic lead of the committee, Robert Garcia.

What's in the Images Released

Several of the photographs published on Thursday show Epstein conversing with academic and activist Noam Chomsky on a private plane; Bill Gates seen alongside a woman whose features is obscured; Steve Bannon sitting at a desk opposite Epstein, and previous Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Investigative Body

These are the newest wealthy, powerful individuals to be seen in Epstein estate photographs released by the House Oversight Committee - previously published images also depict US President Donald Trump and ex-president Bill Clinton, as well as film director Woody Allen, ex- US Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers, attorney Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and other figures.

Showing up in the photos is not indication of any wrongdoing, and several of the photographed men have stated they were never involved in Epstein's criminal activity.

In a announcement released with the photograph publication, Lawmakers on the US House Oversight Committee noted the Epstein property holders did not supply background information or timings for the photographs.

"Photographs were selected to provide the public with openness into a typical cross-section of the photos received from the holdings, and to offer perspectives into Epstein's associates and his exceptionally alarming actions," the statement reads.

Oversight Panel

The release also features several photographs of quotes from the Vladimir Nabokov novel Lolita written in ink across various areas of a female's body, including her upper body, lower extremity, hip, and rear. Lolita narrates the account of a young girl who was exploited by a older literature professor.

A particular quote from the novel scrawled across a woman's chest reads, "Lolita's name: the tip of the tongue traveling of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth".

The release also contains a series of photographs of women's travel documents and ID papers from nations worldwide, such as Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Oversight Panel

A large portion of the data on the documents, including names and birth dates, is censored but the panel stated in a press release that the travel documents pertain to "individuals whom Jeffrey Epstein and his associates were interacting with".

Another image depicts Epstein sitting at a desk intimately surrounded by three individuals whose faces have been obscured - one individual has her hand on Epstein's torso under his clothing, and another individual is leaning to look at a close-by device. Epstein seems to be helping the third individual put on a wristband.

Committee

A further image disclosed is a image of SMS messages from an unidentified person who says they have been sent "several females" and are asking for "$$1,000 per girl".

Image Disclosure Occurs Prior to DOJ Due Date

The committee has a vast number of images in its custody from the Epstein estate, which are "simultaneously graphic and ordinary," its statement on this week noted.

The Congressional committee first subpoenaed the property of Epstein, who died in a New York prison in 2019 while facing trial on accusations of sex trafficking crimes, in August.

The photographs and files the Epstein estate's representatives gave to the body are distinct from what is largely called "the Epstein documents". Those files are papers in the DOJ's control connected to its independent investigation into Epstein.

Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Donald Trump enacted in November, the DOJ has until 19 December to release its documents. The scope of what is included in the DOJ's files is unknown, and it's likely that much of the content will be significantly censored, similar to Congressional releases