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Investigative Body

The House investigative committee has made public a batch of around 70 photos obtained from the property of former found guilty sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This constitutes the third such release from a larger collection of more than 95,000 images the body has obtained from Epstein's holdings. It includes images of quotes from the book Lolita inscribed across a woman's body, and redacted images of women's international passports.

This disclosure occurs just hours before the 19 December cut-off for the Justice Department to make public all documents related to its inquiry into Epstein.

"These latest photographs bring up further questions about what exactly the Justice Department has in its holdings," stated the senior Democrat of the panel, Robert Garcia.

Contents in the Photos Disclosed

Several of the photographs made public on this week show Epstein conversing with professor and activist Noam Chomsky inside a private plane; Bill Gates standing next to a individual whose features is redacted; Steve Bannon sitting at a desk facing Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a evening meal.

Committee

These are the newest affluent, powerful men to be seen in Epstein estate photos released by the oversight panel - earlier released photos also depict US President Donald Trump and ex-president Bill Clinton, as well as movie director Woody Allen, ex- US Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers, attorney Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and others.

Appearing in the photographs is not proof of any wrongdoing, and many of the pictured men have asserted they were not involved in Epstein's unlawful actions.

In a announcement accompanying the photograph disclosure, Democratic members on the US House Oversight Committee said the Epstein estate did not offer explanatory details or timeframes for the pictures.

"Images were selected to provide the American people with openness into a typical cross-section of the photographs acquired from the holdings, and to provide insights into Epstein's network and his extremely alarming activities," the announcement states.

Committee

The release also includes several photographs of quotes from the Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita written in dark ink across several locations of a woman's body, including her upper body, foot, hipbone, and back. Lolita recounts the story of a adolescent who was groomed by a older literature professor.

A particular quote from the book inscribed across a woman's torso reads, "Lo-lee-ta: the end of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the roof of the mouth to tap, at three, on the teeth".

Additionally, there are a number of images of women's identification and official papers from states around the world, including Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Oversight Panel

A large portion of the information on the papers, like names and birth dates, is censored but the committee indicated in a press release that the travel documents pertain to "females whom Jeffrey Epstein and his conspirators were involved with".

A further photograph shows Epstein sitting at a table closely in the company of three female figures whose features have been censored - one individual has her palm on Epstein's torso under his clothing, and a second is bending to examine a close-by laptop. Epstein seems to be helping the third individual put on a bracelet.

Committee

Another image disclosed is a capture of digital messages from an unnamed person who states they have been provided "several females" and are requesting "$one thousand dollars for each individual".

Image Publication Arrives Before DOJ Cut-off

The panel has thousands of images in its custody from the Epstein property, which are "simultaneously disturbing and mundane," its announcement on Thursday clarified.

The Congressional committee first issued a subpoena to the property of Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on allegations of human trafficking, in August.

The photographs and files the Epstein property provided to the body are separate from what is commonly termed "Epstein-related records". Those are documents under the justice department's custody associated with its independent investigation into Epstein.

Under the recently passed law, which Donald Trump made law recently, the DOJ has a deadline of 19 December to publish its files. The scope of what's found in the DOJ's records is not publicly known, and it's probable that a significant portion of the material will be significantly obscured, akin to Congressional documents