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Committee

The House investigative committee has published a collection of around 70 photos obtained from the property of former found guilty sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This constitutes the third release from a larger collection of more than 95,000 photographs the panel has acquired from Epstein's property. It contains images of quotes from the book Lolita inscribed across a female's body, and censored photos of women's international passports.

This release arrives hours before the 19 December cut-off for the Justice Department to make public every documents related to its probe into Epstein.

"These photos pose more queries about what exactly the DOJ has in its possession," said the senior Democrat of the panel, Robert Garcia.

Contents in the Photographs Released

A number of the images released on this week show Epstein in discussion with professor and activist Noam Chomsky on a personal aircraft; Bill Gates positioned next to a individual whose identity is censored; Steve Bannon positioned at a workstation facing Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Committee

These are the most recent wealthy, influential figures to be photographed in Epstein's estate images published by the committee - formerly released pictures also depict US President Donald Trump and former 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 others.

Appearing in the photos is not indication of any wrongdoing, and many of the pictured men have said they were in no way involved in Epstein's criminal activity.

In a announcement released with the image publication, Democratic members on the US House Oversight Committee stated the Epstein estate's representatives did not provide context or timings for the pictures.

"Images were chosen to furnish the public with openness into a typical cross-section of the photos received from the holdings, and to provide perspectives into Epstein's circle and his profoundly troubling activities," the statement says.

Investigative Body

The disclosure also includes multiple photographs of excerpts from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita penned in ink across several locations of a woman's body, including her torso, feet, pelvis, and rear. Lolita recounts the story of a young girl who was exploited by a middle-aged literature professor.

An example of a excerpt from the book written across a woman's chest says, "Lolita: the tip of the tongue traveling of three steps down the roof of the mouth to land, at three, on the teeth".

Additionally, there are a collection of photographs of women's identification and ID papers from nations around the world, like Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Investigative Body

The majority of the data on the documents, including names and dates of birth, is redacted but the panel said in a press release that the passports belong to "females whom Jeffrey Epstein and his conspirators were interacting with".

A further photo features Epstein sitting at a workstation intimately surrounded by three female figures whose features have been redacted - one individual has her hand on Epstein's upper body under his clothing, and another individual is leaning to view a nearby laptop. Epstein can be seen to be aiding the third individual attach a piece of jewelry.

Investigative Body

An additional photograph made public is a image of text messages from an unknown person who claims they have been provided "several females" and are asking for "$1000 per girl".

Image Publication Arrives Before DOJ Cut-off

The panel has many thousands of images in its holdings from the Epstein holdings, which are "both disturbing and ordinary," its announcement on recently explained.

The House Oversight Committee first subpoenaed the estate of Epstein, who was found dead in a New York correctional facility in 2019 while awaiting trial on accusations of human trafficking, in August.

The photos and files the Epstein estate gave to the committee are distinct from what is largely called "the Epstein files". Those are papers in the DOJ's custody related to its separate probe into Epstein.

Pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which the President made law recently, the DOJ has a deadline of 19 December to disclose its records. The scope of what's found in the DOJ's files is unclear, and it's likely that a large amount of the content will be significantly obscured, akin to the committee's documents