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Committee

The House Oversight Committee has released a set of roughly 70 photographs obtained from the property of deceased found guilty sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This represents the latest in a series of release from a larger collection of over 95,000 photos the panel has obtained from Epstein's holdings. It features images of quotes from the novel Lolita inscribed across a woman's body, and censored photos of female overseas passports.

This action occurs hours before the 19 December due date for the Justice Department to disclose each documents related to its investigation into Epstein.

"These new photos bring up more queries about precisely what the Justice Department has in its possession," said the ranking member of the panel, Robert Garcia.

Contents in the Photos Made Public

A number of the images published on Thursday depict Epstein conversing with professor and activist Noam Chomsky inside a private plane; Bill Gates seen alongside a woman whose face is obscured; Steve Bannon positioned at a desk opposite Epstein, and previous Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner event.

Oversight Panel

These are the newest affluent, prominent men to be photographed in Epstein property photographs disclosed by the committee - earlier published images also include US President Donald Trump and past president Bill Clinton, as well as director Woody Allen, previous US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, attorney Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and additional individuals.

Being pictured in the photographs is is not considered proof of any wrongdoing, and a number of the featured men have stated they were not participating in Epstein's unlawful actions.

In a announcement accompanying the photograph publication, Democratic members on the US House Oversight Committee noted the Epstein estate did not provide context or timings for the photographs.

"Images were selected to offer the public with openness into a typical cross-section of the photographs received from the estate, and to give perspectives into Epstein's associates and his profoundly alarming activities," the release states.

Investigative Body

The release also features several images of excerpts from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita written in black ink across different parts of a female's body, such as her torso, lower extremity, hipbone, and rear. Lolita tells the story of a minor who was manipulated by a adult literature professor.

A particular quote from the book inscribed across a female's torso says, "Lolita: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the mouth to land, at three, on the teeth".

Additionally, there are a number of photographs of women's travel documents and identification documents from countries worldwide, such as Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Committee

The majority of the information on the IDs, including identities and birth dates, is obscured but the committee said in a announcement that the travel documents pertain to "women whom Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators were involved with".

An additional image depicts Epstein seated at a workstation intimately flanked by three individuals whose identities have been obscured - one has her hand on Epstein's chest under his shirt, and another is bending to view a adjacent device. Epstein can be seen to be assisting the third fasten a piece of jewelry.

Investigative Body

Another image released is a capture of SMS messages from an unnamed sender who states they have been supplied "some girls" and are asking for "$1000 for each individual".

Photograph Publication Occurs Prior to DOJ Cut-off

The body has many thousands of images in its holdings from the Epstein holdings, which are "at once graphic and ordinary," its statement on Thursday noted.

The Congressional committee first issued a subpoena to the property of Epstein, who was found dead in a New York prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on allegations of human trafficking, in August.

The photographs and records the Epstein property gave to the committee are different than what is commonly referred to "the Epstein files". Those files are papers within the justice department's control connected to its own inquiry into Epstein.

Pursuant to the Transparency Act, which President Trump made law in November, the DOJ has until the date of 19 December to release its files. The scope of what is found in the DOJ's documents is unknown, and it's probable that much of the content will be heavily obscured, akin to the committee's documents