🔗 Share this article

Investigative Body

The House investigative committee has released a batch of roughly 70 photographs obtained from the property of former found guilty sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This represents the third such publication from a larger collection of more than 95,000 images the panel has acquired from Epstein's holdings. It contains images of quotes from the literary work Lolita inscribed across a woman's body, and obscured photos of female foreign passports.

This action arrives just hours before the December 19th due date for the Justice Department to disclose every documents connected to its investigation into Epstein.

"These new images raise more queries about exactly what the Department of Justice has in its possession," stated the senior Democrat of the panel, Robert Garcia.

Contents in the Photographs Released

A number of the photographs published on recently show Epstein speaking with scholar and advocate Noam Chomsky aboard a personal aircraft; Bill Gates standing alongside a woman whose features is redacted; Steve Bannon positioned at a desk facing Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner event.

Committee

These are the latest wealthy, powerful figures to be seen in Epstein estate photographs disclosed by the oversight panel - formerly released pictures also show US President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton, as well as film director Woody Allen, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, counsel Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and additional individuals.

Being pictured in the images is not proof of any wrongdoing, and a number of the featured men have asserted they were in no way participating in Epstein's criminal activity.

In a statement released with the photograph publication, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee said the Epstein property holders did not provide context or timings for the pictures.

"Photographs were chosen to provide the general populace with openness into a representative sample of the photos acquired from the holdings, and to give perspectives into Epstein's circle and his extremely troubling activities," the release says.

Committee

The release also features a number of photos of excerpts from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita written in ink across different parts of a female's body, like her chest, foot, hipbone, and spine. Lolita narrates the account of a young girl who was manipulated by a older literature professor.

A particular excerpt from the novel inscribed across a woman's upper body reads, "Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue traveling of three steps down the roof of the mouth to alight, at three, on the teeth".

The release also contains a collection of photographs of female passports and identification documents from countries around the world, including Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Committee

A large portion of the data on the documents, including identities and birth dates, is redacted but the panel indicated in a announcement that the passports pertain to "women whom Jeffrey Epstein and his conspirators were engaging".

Another photograph shows Epstein seated at a table intimately flanked by three women whose features have been obscured - one individual has her hand on Epstein's chest under his shirt, and a second is crouching to view a close-by computer. Epstein appears to be assisting the third put on a bracelet.

Oversight Panel

A further photograph released is a screenshot of SMS messages from an unidentified individual who states they have been supplied "a number of girls" and are asking for "$1000 per girl".

Photo Publication Comes Before DOJ Cut-off

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

The Congressional committee first legally compelled the estate of Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019 while facing trial on accusations of human trafficking, in August.

The photos and records the Epstein property gave to the panel are distinct from what is largely termed "the Epstein documents". Those are documents under the DOJ's possession related to its separate investigation into Epstein.

In accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Donald Trump signed into law in November, the DOJ has until 19 December to disclose its files. The full nature of what is included in the DOJ's documents is unclear, and it's expected that much of the information will be significantly obscured, comparable to House Oversight Committee releases