🔗 Share this article

Committee

The Congressional oversight panel has made public a set of roughly 70 photographs secured from the holdings of late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This marks the third publication from a cache of over 95,000 images the panel has acquired from Epstein's property. It includes pictures of excerpts from the novel Lolita inscribed across a woman's body, and censored images of female foreign passports.

This action occurs hours before the December 19th cut-off for the DOJ to release each files connected to its investigation into Epstein.

"These photos pose additional inquiries about what exactly the Department of Justice has in its custody," stated the ranking member of the committee, Robert Garcia.

Contents in the Photographs Made Public

Several of the photographs released on Thursday show Epstein in discussion with scholar and advocate Noam Chomsky aboard a personal aircraft; Bill Gates standing alongside a individual whose face is redacted; Steve Bannon sitting at a workstation facing Epstein, and previous Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a evening meal.

Committee

These are the newest high-net-worth, powerful individuals to be photographed in Epstein's estate photos released by the oversight panel - formerly disclosed images also include US President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton, as well as movie director Woody Allen, former US Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers, counsel Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and additional individuals.

Appearing in the photographs is does not constitute evidence of any wrongdoing, and a number of the featured individuals have stated they were never implicated in Epstein's illegal activity.

In a statement accompanying the image disclosure, Lawmakers on the US House Oversight Committee stated the Epstein estate did not offer explanatory details or timings for the photographs.

"Photographs were picked to offer the American people with openness into a typical cross-section of the images obtained from the property, and to give understanding into Epstein's associates and his profoundly alarming actions," the announcement says.

Committee

The release also contains multiple images of passages from the Vladimir Nabokov novel Lolita penned in ink across different parts of a woman's body, like her chest, feet, pelvis, and rear. Lolita narrates the account of a young girl who was groomed by a older literature professor.

An example of a quote from the novel inscribed across a female's chest says, "Lolita's name: the tip of the tongue traveling of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth".

There are also a collection of images of female travel documents and ID papers from nations around the world, such as Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Investigative Body

A large portion of the information on the papers, like names and birth dates, is obscured but the panel indicated in a announcement that the travel documents pertain to "females whom Jeffrey Epstein and his conspirators were interacting with".

Another photograph depicts Epstein seated at a workstation in close proximity in the company of three female figures whose faces have been obscured - a first has her hand on Epstein's upper body under his clothing, and another individual is leaning to view a nearby device. Epstein seems to be helping the final person fasten a wristband.

Committee

Another photograph released is a capture of text messages from an unknown sender who states they have been provided "several females" and are asking for "$one thousand dollars per girl".

Image Release Occurs Before DOJ Cut-off

The panel has many thousands of photographs in its holdings from the Epstein property, which are "simultaneously disturbing and mundane," its statement on this week noted.

The House Oversight Committee first issued a subpoena to the estate of Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019 while facing trial on allegations of human trafficking, in August.

The photos and files the Epstein estate's representatives submitted to the committee are distinct from what is often referred to "the Epstein documents". Those are documents under the justice department's control connected to its independent investigation into Epstein.

Pursuant to the Transparency Act, which the President signed into law in November, the DOJ has until 19 December to release its documents. The full nature of the contents found in the DOJ's files is unknown, and it's likely that much of the content will be significantly censored, akin to the committee's materials