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Committee

The House Oversight Committee has released a batch of around 70 photographs from the estate of deceased adjudicated sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.

This marks the latest in a series of publication from a tranche of more than 95,000 images the panel has secured from Epstein's holdings. It features images of passages from the book Lolita written across a woman's body, and obscured photos of female international passports.

This release comes just hours before the 19th of December deadline for the Justice Department to disclose every files associated with its inquiry into Epstein.

"These new photographs raise more inquiries about precisely what the DOJ has in its custody," said the Democratic lead of the committee, Robert Garcia.

What's in the Photographs Disclosed

Several of the photographs released on Thursday show Epstein in discussion with academic and activist Noam Chomsky aboard a personal aircraft; Bill Gates seen beside a individual whose face is obscured; Steve Bannon seated at a workstation across from Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Oversight Panel

These are the most recent affluent, prominent individuals to be photographed in Epstein's estate images published by the committee - earlier released photos also include US President Donald Trump and ex-president Bill Clinton, as well as movie director Woody Allen, former US treasury secretary Larry Summers, attorney Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and additional individuals.

Showing up in the photos is is not considered evidence of any illegal activity, and several of the featured men have stated they were never participating in Epstein's illegal activity.

In a press release released with the photograph publication, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee stated the Epstein property holders did not offer background information or timeframes for the images.

"Images were selected to provide the general populace with openness into a representative sample of the photographs obtained from the property, and to provide perspectives into Epstein's circle and his extremely troubling actions," the release reads.

Oversight Panel

The release also includes multiple photographs of quotes from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita penned in dark ink across different parts of a woman's body, such as her upper body, feet, hipbone, and rear. Lolita narrates the account of a minor who was groomed by a older literature professor.

One quote from the work inscribed across a woman's torso reads, "Lolita's name: the point of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the mouth to alight, at three, on the teeth".

Additionally, there are a series of photos of female identification and official papers from countries around the world, like Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Committee

The majority of the information on the papers, such as identities and DOBs, is redacted but the House Oversight Committee said in a press release that the travel documents belong to "individuals whom Jeffrey Epstein and his associates were involved with".

A further photograph depicts Epstein sitting at a table in close proximity flanked by three female figures whose identities have been obscured - one has her palm on Epstein's upper body under his shirt, and another is leaning to view a adjacent laptop. Epstein seems to be aiding the third put on a piece of jewelry.

Investigative Body

A further photograph disclosed is a image of SMS messages from an unknown person who states they have been sent "several females" and are asking for "$one thousand dollars for each individual".

Image Publication Comes Ahead of DOJ Deadline

The body has thousands of photographs in its custody from the Epstein holdings, which are "simultaneously explicit and ordinary," its statement on Thursday explained.

The oversight panel first subpoenaed the estate of Epstein, who died in a New York correctional facility in 2019 while awaiting trial on allegations of sex trafficking crimes, in August.

The photographs and files the Epstein property submitted to the panel are distinct from what is commonly termed "the Epstein files". Those files are records in the justice department's control associated with its independent investigation into Epstein.

In accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which the President made law last month, the DOJ has a deadline of 19 December to publish its files. The scope of what's found in the DOJ's files is unclear, and it's likely that much of the information will be heavily obscured, comparable to the committee's releases