🔗 Share this article

Oversight Panel

The House Oversight Committee has released a collection of roughly 70 images obtained from the property of late found guilty sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.

This constitutes the latest in a series of disclosure from a larger collection of in excess of 95,000 images the panel has secured from Epstein's estate. It contains photographs of excerpts from the novel Lolita written across a woman's body, and redacted pictures of female foreign passports.

This disclosure comes mere hours before the 19 December due date for the Department of Justice to release each files associated with its inquiry into Epstein.

"These latest photos raise more queries about precisely what the Justice Department has in its custody," remarked the ranking member of the panel, Robert Garcia.

What's in the Photos Made Public

A number of the photographs released on Thursday depict Epstein in discussion with academic and activist Noam Chomsky aboard a private plane; Bill Gates seen next to a female whose face is censored; Steve Bannon sitting at a desk opposite Epstein, and previous Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner event.

Committee

These are the newest high-net-worth, influential individuals to be photographed in Epstein estate photos released by the committee - previously disclosed photos also depict US President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton, as well as film director Woody Allen, previous US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, attorney Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and other figures.

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

In a announcement issued alongside the photo publication, Lawmakers on the US House Oversight Committee said the Epstein property holders did not supply explanatory details or timings for the pictures.

"Photographs were selected to furnish the public with transparency into a illustrative selection of the photographs obtained from the property, and to provide perspectives into Epstein's network and his exceptionally troubling behavior," the announcement says.

Committee

The disclosure also includes several photos of quotes from the Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita penned in dark ink across different parts of a woman's body, such as her chest, lower extremity, hipbone, and rear. Lolita narrates the account of a young girl who was manipulated by a older literature professor.

One quote from the novel inscribed across a female's chest says, "Lolita: the point of the tongue traveling of three steps down the mouth to alight, at three, on the teeth".

The release also contains a series of photos of female travel documents and official papers from nations worldwide, like Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Investigative Body

Most of the details on the papers, such as names and DOBs, is obscured but the committee said in a statement that the travel documents belong to "women whom Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators were engaging".

Another image features Epstein seated at a workstation in close proximity in the company of three individuals whose identities have been censored - a first has her palm on Epstein's upper body under his shirt, and another individual is crouching to view a nearby computer. Epstein seems to be assisting the third individual attach a piece of jewelry.

Investigative Body

A further photo disclosed is a capture of text messages from an unnamed sender who states they have been supplied "a number of girls" and are requesting "$1000 for each individual".

Image Disclosure Comes Ahead of DOJ Cut-off

The panel has thousands of photographs in its possession from the Epstein property, which are "at once disturbing and everyday," its announcement on this week noted.

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

The photos and files the Epstein estate's representatives gave to the committee are different than what is commonly termed "Epstein-related records". Those files are papers within the justice department's possession related to its separate investigation into Epstein.

Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Donald Trump enacted in November, the DOJ has until 19 December to disclose its files. The extent of what's included in the DOJ's files is not publicly known, and it's probable that much of the information will be significantly censored, akin to Congressional materials