🔗 Share this article

Committee

The Congressional oversight panel has released a collection of around 70 images secured from the holdings of late convicted individual convicted of sex crimes Jeffrey Epstein.

This constitutes the third such disclosure from a tranche of in excess of 95,000 photographs the body has acquired from Epstein's estate. It contains pictures of passages from the novel Lolita written across a woman's body, and redacted pictures of female overseas passports.

This action occurs mere hours before the 19 December due date for the DOJ to disclose all files related to its inquiry into Epstein.

"These latest photos pose further inquiries about exactly what the Department of Justice has in its holdings," stated the senior Democrat of the panel, Robert Garcia.

Contents in the Photographs Released

A number of the photographs published on recently show Epstein speaking with scholar and advocate Noam Chomsky aboard a personal aircraft; Bill Gates standing alongside a woman whose features is redacted; Steve Bannon sitting at a table facing Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Committee

These are the newest affluent, influential figures to be pictured in Epstein's estate photos disclosed by the oversight panel - earlier published photos also include US President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton, as well as director Woody Allen, ex- US Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and other figures.

Showing up in the images is is not considered proof of any misconduct, and several of the pictured figures have asserted they were never implicated in Epstein's unlawful actions.

In a statement released with the image disclosure, Democratic members on the US House Oversight Committee stated the Epstein property holders did not supply context or timeframes for the images.

"Photos were chosen to provide the general populace with openness into a representative sample of the photos acquired from the holdings, and to provide perspectives into Epstein's network and his profoundly disturbing behavior," the announcement reads.

Investigative Body

The disclosure also features a number of photos of quotes from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita penned in ink across various areas of a woman's body, including her torso, foot, pelvis, and back. Lolita narrates the account of a minor who was exploited by a middle-aged literature professor.

An example of a passage from the novel written across a female's torso says, "Lolita's name: the end of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to alight, at three, on the teeth".

Additionally, there are a series of photographs of women's passports and official papers from countries around the world, like Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Committee

A large portion of the details on the documents, such as names and DOBs, is obscured but the panel stated in a announcement that the passports belong to "women whom Jeffrey Epstein and his associates were interacting with".

An additional photograph shows Epstein positioned at a workstation intimately surrounded by three women whose faces have been obscured - a first has her palm on Epstein's upper body under his clothing, and a second is leaning to look at a nearby laptop. Epstein seems to be assisting the third individual attach a piece of jewelry.

Oversight Panel

An additional photo released is a screenshot of digital messages from an unknown person who claims they have been provided "some girls" and are asking for "$1000 per female".

Photo Release Arrives Prior to DOJ Cut-off

The committee has many thousands of images in its custody from the Epstein estate, which are "both explicit and ordinary," its announcement on Thursday clarified.

The oversight panel first subpoenaed the holdings of Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019 while pending legal proceedings on charges of sex trafficking crimes, in August.

The photographs and records the Epstein estate's representatives gave to the committee are distinct from what is largely called "Epstein-related records". Those are records in the DOJ's possession associated with its separate probe into Epstein.

Under the Transparency Act, which Donald Trump signed into law last month, the DOJ has until the date of 19 December to publish its files. The full nature of the contents included in the DOJ's records is not publicly known, and it's expected that a large amount of the information will be extensively obscured, akin to the committee's materials