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Investigative Body

The House investigative committee has published a batch of approximately 70 photos secured from the holdings of former found guilty sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This marks the third such publication from a tranche of more than 95,000 photos the panel has secured from Epstein's holdings. It includes images of excerpts from the novel Lolita scrawled across a woman's body, and obscured photos of female international passports.

This action comes just hours before the 19 December cut-off for the Justice Department to release all files associated with its inquiry into Epstein.

"These new images raise further queries about what exactly the Justice Department has in its holdings," remarked the ranking member of the committee, Robert Garcia.

Contents in the Photos Disclosed

Some of the photos made public on this week depict Epstein speaking with academic and activist Noam Chomsky on a private plane; Bill Gates seen alongside a individual whose face is redacted; Steve Bannon sitting at a table across from Epstein, and previous Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Oversight Panel

These are the newest affluent, powerful men to be seen in Epstein's estate photographs published by the oversight panel - formerly released images also show US President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton, as well as director Woody Allen, former US treasury secretary Larry Summers, counsel Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and other figures.

Appearing in the images is does not constitute indication of any misconduct, and several of the photographed men have asserted they were never involved in Epstein's unlawful actions.

In a statement issued alongside the photo release, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee said the Epstein estate's representatives did not offer explanatory details or dates for the pictures.

"Photos were selected to offer the public with transparency into a representative sample of the photographs acquired from the estate, and to offer insights into Epstein's network and his profoundly troubling activities," the release says.

Investigative Body

The publication also includes multiple photos of excerpts from the Vladimir Nabokov novel Lolita written in black ink across several locations of a female's body, such as her chest, lower extremity, hip, and spine. Lolita tells the tale of a adolescent who was manipulated by a older literature professor.

One passage from the book written across a woman's upper body reads, "Lolita: the point of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the mouth to alight, at three, on the teeth".

The release also contains a series of photographs of female passports and ID papers from countries globally, such as Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Committee

The majority of the data on the papers, such as names and DOBs, is redacted but the committee indicated in a press release that the passports belong to "individuals whom Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators were interacting with".

A further image shows Epstein positioned at a workstation intimately surrounded by three women whose features have been censored - one individual has her hand on Epstein's chest under his garment, and another is crouching to look at a close-by computer. Epstein can be seen to be helping the third individual fasten a piece of jewelry.

Investigative Body

An additional image disclosed is a capture of text messages from an unidentified sender who claims they have been supplied "several females" and are demanding "$$1,000 per girl".

Image Disclosure Occurs Before DOJ Cut-off

The panel has many thousands of images in its custody from the Epstein property, which are "both graphic and mundane," its statement on recently clarified.

The House Oversight Committee first subpoenaed the holdings of Epstein, who was found dead in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on allegations of sex trafficking, in August.

The images and records the Epstein estate's representatives submitted to the body are different than what is often termed "Epstein-related records". Those are papers within the Department of Justice's control associated with its separate inquiry into Epstein.

In accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which the President made law recently, the DOJ has a deadline of 19 December to disclose its records. The full nature of what is included in the DOJ's documents is unclear, and it's likely that a significant portion of the information will be heavily redacted, akin to House Oversight Committee materials