🔗 Share this article

Investigative Body

The House Oversight Committee has made public a collection of roughly 70 photographs obtained from the property of former adjudicated sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This represents the third disclosure from a cache of more than 95,000 images the panel has secured from Epstein's estate. It contains images of excerpts from the literary work Lolita inscribed across a female's body, and obscured photos of women's international passports.

This disclosure occurs hours before the 19th of December due date for the DOJ to make public all files connected to its inquiry into Epstein.

"These new photos pose further questions about exactly what the Justice Department has in its holdings," remarked the ranking member of the panel, Robert Garcia.

Contents in the Photos Made Public

Some of the images made public on Thursday show Epstein conversing with professor and activist Noam Chomsky aboard a private plane; Bill Gates seen alongside a individual whose face is redacted; Steve Bannon sitting at a table across from Epstein, and ex- Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a evening meal.

Investigative Body

These are the most recent wealthy, powerful men to be seen in Epstein's estate photographs disclosed by the oversight panel - formerly disclosed pictures also include US President Donald Trump and ex-president Bill Clinton, as well as film director Woody Allen, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and others.

Showing up in the photographs is not evidence of any wrongdoing, and a number of the photographed figures have said they were in no way implicated in Epstein's criminal activity.

In a statement accompanying the image publication, Democratic members on the US House Oversight Committee said the Epstein property holders did not offer context or timings for the pictures.

"Images were selected to provide the public with clarity into a representative sample of the images received from the holdings, and to provide perspectives into Epstein's associates and his exceptionally disturbing activities," the statement states.

Committee

The disclosure also features several photos of quotes from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita inscribed in dark ink across various areas of a female's body, such as her torso, lower extremity, hip, and rear. Lolita recounts the tale of a minor who was exploited by a adult literature professor.

One quote from the novel written across a female's upper body reads, "Lolita's name: the tip of the tongue making a journey of three steps down the mouth to alight, at three, on the teeth".

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

Oversight Panel

A large portion of the data on the papers, including names and birth dates, is obscured but the House Oversight Committee stated in a statement that the passports are associated with "individuals whom Jeffrey Epstein and his associates were engaging".

An additional image features Epstein sitting at a table in close proximity surrounded by three individuals whose identities have been obscured - one individual has her palm on Epstein's chest under his garment, and a second is leaning to examine a nearby laptop. Epstein appears to be helping the third put on a bracelet.

Investigative Body

An additional photo released is a screenshot of SMS messages from an unnamed sender who says they have been supplied "several females" and are requesting "$$1,000 per female".

Image Release Occurs Prior to DOJ Cut-off

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

The House Oversight Committee first legally compelled the property of Epstein, who died in a New York correctional facility in 2019 while pending legal proceedings on allegations of sex trafficking crimes, in August.

The images and files the Epstein estate provided to the body are separate from what is commonly referred to "Epstein-related records". That material are papers within the Department of Justice's possession associated with its own inquiry into Epstein.

Under the recently passed law, which the President signed into law recently, the DOJ has until 19 December to release its files. The extent of what is found in the DOJ's files is not publicly known, and it's expected that much of the content will be extensively censored, akin to House Oversight Committee materials