🔗 Share this article

Investigative Body

The Congressional oversight panel has released a batch of roughly 70 photographs secured from the holdings of former adjudicated sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This marks the third release from a larger collection of over 95,000 photos the committee has secured from Epstein's property. It contains photographs of passages from the literary work Lolita written across a woman's body, and redacted images of women's overseas passports.

This action comes mere hours before the 19 December due date for the DOJ to disclose each documents associated with its probe into Epstein.

"These images raise additional questions about what exactly the Justice Department has in its possession," stated the Democratic lead of the committee, Robert Garcia.

What is in the Photos Made Public

Several of the photographs released on Thursday depict Epstein speaking with professor and activist Noam Chomsky aboard a private plane; Bill Gates standing next to a individual whose face is redacted; Steve Bannon positioned at a table opposite Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner event.

Investigative Body

These are the most recent high-net-worth, influential individuals to be pictured in Epstein property images disclosed by the committee - earlier published images also include US President Donald Trump and past president Bill Clinton, as well as movie director Woody Allen, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, counsel Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and other figures.

Being pictured in the images is does not constitute evidence of any illegal activity, and many of the photographed individuals have said they were in no way participating in Epstein's unlawful actions.

In a announcement issued alongside the image disclosure, Democratic members on the US House Oversight Committee stated the Epstein estate's representatives did not offer background information or timeframes for the images.

"Images were selected to provide the public with transparency into a illustrative selection of the images acquired from the holdings, and to give understanding into Epstein's circle and his profoundly alarming behavior," the announcement reads.

Committee

The release also contains several images of excerpts from the Vladimir Nabokov novel Lolita inscribed in black ink across several locations of a woman's body, such as her chest, foot, hip, and back. Lolita narrates the story of a young girl who was exploited by a middle-aged literature professor.

A particular quote from the work inscribed across a woman's torso reads, "Lolita: the tip of the tongue traveling of three steps down the mouth to tap, at three, on the teeth".

Additionally, there are a collection of images of women's identification and official papers from nations worldwide, including Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Oversight Panel

A large portion of the information on the IDs, including names and DOBs, is redacted but the House Oversight Committee said in a press release that the passports belong to "women whom Jeffrey Epstein and his associates were interacting with".

An additional image features Epstein sitting at a table in close proximity in the company of three women whose faces have been censored - a first has her hand on Epstein's chest under his shirt, and another is bending to view a adjacent laptop. Epstein can be seen to be aiding the third attach a bracelet.

Investigative Body

An additional photograph made public is a screenshot of text messages from an unknown person who says they have been sent "some girls" and are demanding "$1000 for each individual".

Image Disclosure Occurs Ahead of DOJ Due Date

The committee has many thousands of photos in its custody from the Epstein property, which are "at once explicit and everyday," its statement on Thursday explained.

The oversight panel first legally compelled the property of Epstein, who passed away in a New York correctional facility in 2019 while facing trial on accusations of sex trafficking crimes, in August.

The photos and documents the Epstein estate submitted to the panel are different than what is often termed "the Epstein documents". Those files are documents under the Department of Justice's control related to its own probe into Epstein.

In accordance with the Transparency Act, which the President enacted in November, the DOJ has until 19 December to release its records. The full nature of what's contained in the DOJ's records is unclear, and it's probable that a significant portion of the material will be extensively censored, comparable to House Oversight Committee materials