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Committee

The House investigative committee has made public a set of approximately 70 photographs obtained from the property of former convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.

This constitutes the third disclosure from a cache of over 95,000 images the panel has secured from Epstein's estate. It contains images of excerpts from the novel Lolita written across a woman's body, and censored images of women's foreign passports.

This action arrives mere hours before the 19 December cut-off for the Department of Justice to disclose all files connected to its inquiry into Epstein.

"These photos pose further queries about exactly what the Department of Justice has in its possession," stated the ranking member of the committee, Robert Garcia.

What's in the Photos Released

Some of the photos released on recently feature Epstein speaking with professor and activist Noam Chomsky on a private jet; Bill Gates standing next to a woman whose features is censored; Steve Bannon seated at a workstation opposite Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a evening meal.

Oversight Panel

These are the latest affluent, powerful figures to be seen in Epstein's estate images released by the House Oversight Committee - earlier disclosed pictures also include US President Donald Trump and ex-president Bill Clinton, as well as director Woody Allen, previous US Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers, attorney Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and other figures.

Being pictured in the photos is is not considered indication of any misconduct, and many of the featured figures have stated they were not implicated in Epstein's unlawful actions.

In a announcement released with the image disclosure, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee stated the Epstein estate did not provide explanatory details or timeframes for the images.

"Images were selected to offer the American people with transparency into a representative sample of the images obtained from the property, and to provide insights into Epstein's circle and his exceptionally alarming actions," the release reads.

Oversight Panel

The release also contains several images of passages from the Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita written in dark ink across various areas of a woman's body, including her upper body, lower extremity, hipbone, and rear. Lolita tells the story of a young girl who was groomed by a middle-aged literature professor.

A particular quote from the novel written across a woman's torso says, "Lolita's name: the point of the tongue making a journey of three steps down the mouth to land, at three, on the teeth".

Additionally, there are a collection of photos of female travel documents and identification documents from nations around the world, including Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Oversight Panel

A large portion of the data on the documents, including names and dates of birth, is censored but the panel indicated in a statement that the passports pertain to "individuals whom Jeffrey Epstein and his associates were involved with".

An additional photo shows Epstein positioned at a workstation in close proximity in the company of three individuals whose features have been censored - one individual has her hand on Epstein's chest under his clothing, and another individual is crouching to look at a close-by device. Epstein appears to be assisting the third attach a piece of jewelry.

Committee

An additional photo released is a capture of text messages from an unidentified individual who claims they have been sent "several females" and are demanding "$one thousand dollars for each individual".

Photo Disclosure Occurs Before DOJ Due Date

The committee has many thousands of photos in its possession from the Epstein holdings, which are "both graphic and ordinary," its press release on this week clarified.

The House Oversight Committee first issued a subpoena to the property of Epstein, who died in a New York correctional facility in 2019 while facing trial on accusations of sex trafficking crimes, in August.

The photographs and records the Epstein estate submitted to the panel are distinct from what is often referred to "the Epstein files". That material are records in the justice department's control associated with its independent inquiry into Epstein.

Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Trump signed into law in November, the DOJ has until 19 December to release its files. The scope of what is contained in the DOJ's documents is unknown, and it's likely that much of the content will be heavily redacted, similar to Congressional materials