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Oversight Panel

The House investigative committee has published a set of roughly 70 photos secured from the holdings of former convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This constitutes the third disclosure from a cache of more than 95,000 photos the panel has secured from Epstein's holdings. It includes photographs of passages from the book Lolita scrawled across a female's body, and redacted pictures of women's overseas passports.

This release occurs hours before the December 19th cut-off for the Department of Justice to release all files related to its inquiry into Epstein.

"These new images bring up more questions about what exactly the Department of Justice has in its holdings," said the ranking member of the committee, Robert Garcia.

Contents in the Images Released

Some of the photos released on Thursday show Epstein conversing with scholar and advocate Noam Chomsky on a private plane; Bill Gates seen beside a individual whose identity is censored; Steve Bannon sitting at a workstation opposite Epstein, and ex- Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner event.

Investigative Body

These are the latest wealthy, influential men to be seen in Epstein property photographs published by the committee - formerly released images also depict US President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton, as well as film director Woody Allen, former US treasury secretary Larry Summers, attorney Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and other figures.

Showing up in the photographs is not evidence of any misconduct, and many of the photographed individuals have said they were not implicated in Epstein's illegal activity.

In a statement issued alongside the image release, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee stated the Epstein property holders did not provide context or timings for the pictures.

"Photographs were picked to furnish the general populace with transparency into a typical cross-section of the photos obtained from the holdings, and to give insights into Epstein's associates and his exceptionally disturbing actions," the statement states.

Oversight Panel

The publication also includes a number of photos of quotes from the Vladimir Nabokov novel Lolita written in ink across various areas of a female's body, such as her upper body, feet, pelvis, and back. Lolita recounts the account of a minor who was manipulated by a middle-aged literature professor.

One excerpt from the work scrawled across a female's chest states, "Lolita: the point of the tongue traveling of three steps down the roof of the mouth to tap, at three, on the teeth".

The release also contains a series of photos of women's identification and official papers from countries worldwide, including Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Committee

A large portion of the details on the documents, such as identities and DOBs, is obscured but the panel indicated in a announcement that the passports are associated with "females whom Jeffrey Epstein and his conspirators were interacting with".

Another photo depicts Epstein sitting at a workstation closely in the company of three individuals whose features have been redacted - one has her palm on Epstein's chest under his clothing, and a second is bending to view a nearby computer. Epstein appears to be helping the third fasten a wristband.

Investigative Body

An additional photograph released is a image of SMS messages from an unnamed sender who states they have been sent "several females" and are requesting "$$1,000 per female".

Image Disclosure Arrives Prior to DOJ Due Date

The body has many thousands of photos in its custody from the Epstein holdings, which are "at once explicit and everyday," its press release on Thursday clarified.

The House Oversight Committee first subpoenaed the holdings of Epstein, who was found dead in a New York jail in 2019 while pending legal proceedings on accusations of human trafficking, in August.

The photos and files the Epstein estate submitted to the panel are distinct from what is often termed "Epstein-related records". Those files are documents under the DOJ's possession connected to its separate probe into Epstein.

In accordance with the Transparency Act, which the President signed into law in November, the DOJ has a deadline of 19 December to publish its documents. The full nature of what is found in the DOJ's files is unclear, and it's probable that much of the information will be heavily redacted, comparable to the committee's documents