🔗 Share this article

Investigative Body

The Congressional oversight panel has released a batch of approximately 70 photographs obtained from the property of deceased found guilty individual convicted of sex crimes Jeffrey Epstein.

This represents the third release from a larger collection of over 95,000 photos the body has secured from Epstein's property. It includes images of excerpts from the book Lolita scrawled across a female's body, and obscured photos of women's international passports.

This action comes hours before the 19th of December due date for the Justice Department to release every documents related to its inquiry into Epstein.

"These new images pose further questions about precisely what the Justice Department has in its possession," stated the Democratic lead of the committee, Robert Garcia.

Contents in the Images Disclosed

Some of the photographs released on this week depict Epstein speaking with scholar and advocate Noam Chomsky inside a personal aircraft; Bill Gates positioned next to a individual whose face is redacted; Steve Bannon seated at a table across from Epstein, and ex- Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner event.

Investigative Body

These are the latest high-net-worth, influential figures to be photographed in Epstein property images disclosed by the House Oversight Committee - earlier published pictures also include US President Donald Trump and past president Bill Clinton, as well as movie director Woody Allen, previous US treasury secretary Larry Summers, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and others.

Appearing in the photos is does not constitute proof of any wrongdoing, and several of the photographed figures have stated they were never involved in Epstein's criminal activity.

In a press release issued alongside the photo disclosure, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee said the Epstein property holders did not offer background information or timeframes for the pictures.

"Images were chosen to furnish the American people with openness into a typical cross-section of the photos acquired from the estate, and to provide insights into Epstein's network and his extremely troubling actions," the statement states.

Investigative Body

The release also features several images of passages from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita penned in black ink across different parts of a woman's body, including her upper body, foot, hipbone, and spine. Lolita narrates the story of a minor who was exploited by a adult literature professor.

An example of a passage from the work inscribed across a woman's upper body says, "Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to land, at three, on the teeth".

There are also a collection of images of female passports and official papers from nations globally, such as Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Investigative Body

Most of the data on the IDs, including identities and DOBs, is obscured but the committee stated in a statement that the travel documents belong to "women whom Jeffrey Epstein and his associates were interacting with".

Another image features Epstein positioned at a table closely in the company of three female figures whose features have been obscured - one individual has her hand on Epstein's upper body under his clothing, and another individual is bending to look at a adjacent device. Epstein appears to be aiding the third individual fasten a bracelet.

Oversight Panel

An additional photo made public is a capture of SMS messages from an unidentified person who claims they have been provided "several females" and are demanding "$one thousand dollars for each individual".

Photo Publication Comes Before DOJ Due Date

The committee has thousands of images in its holdings from the Epstein estate, which are "at once disturbing and everyday," its announcement on this week noted.

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

The photographs and files the Epstein property gave to the panel are distinct from what is commonly referred to "the Epstein files". Those files are documents in the justice department's custody connected to its independent probe into Epstein.

Under the Transparency Act, which Donald Trump made law last month, the DOJ has until the date of 19 December to disclose its records. The scope of what's found in the DOJ's documents is not publicly known, and it's likely that a large amount of the material will be significantly redacted, similar to House Oversight Committee materials