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Committee

The House Oversight Committee has released a set of roughly 70 images obtained from the property of late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This constitutes the third disclosure from a cache of in excess of 95,000 images the committee has secured from Epstein's holdings. It features photographs of passages from the book Lolita written across a female's body, and redacted images of female foreign passports.

This action comes just hours before the 19th of December cut-off for the DOJ to disclose every documents related to its probe into Epstein.

"These new photos bring up additional queries about what exactly the Justice Department has in its custody," said the Democratic lead of the committee, Robert Garcia.

What is in the Images Disclosed

Some of the photos published on recently depict Epstein conversing with scholar and advocate Noam Chomsky aboard a private plane; Bill Gates standing next to a female whose face is redacted; Steve Bannon seated at a desk opposite Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Committee

These are the latest wealthy, prominent individuals to be photographed in Epstein property photographs published by the committee - earlier released pictures also depict US President Donald Trump and past president Bill Clinton, as well as movie director Woody Allen, ex- US Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers, counsel Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and additional individuals.

Being pictured in the photos is does not constitute evidence of any misconduct, and many of the featured individuals have stated they were never involved in Epstein's unlawful actions.

In a announcement issued alongside the image disclosure, Lawmakers on the US House Oversight Committee said the Epstein estate's representatives did not offer background information or timings for the pictures.

"Images were chosen to furnish the general populace with clarity into a representative sample of the photographs received from the property, and to give understanding into Epstein's associates and his exceptionally alarming activities," the announcement reads.

Investigative Body

The publication also includes multiple photos of excerpts from the Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita penned in dark ink across various areas of a female's body, including her chest, foot, pelvis, and spine. Lolita recounts the story of a adolescent who was manipulated by a older literature professor.

An example of a passage from the novel inscribed across a female's chest says, "Lolita: the end of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the mouth to land, at three, on the teeth".

There are also a series of photos of women's passports and official papers from nations worldwide, such as Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Committee

Most of the data on the documents, including identities and dates of birth, is censored but the committee said in a statement that the passports belong to "individuals whom Jeffrey Epstein and his conspirators were engaging".

Another photo shows Epstein positioned at a desk intimately in the company of three individuals whose identities have been redacted - one has her hand on Epstein's torso under his clothing, and another individual is crouching to look at a adjacent laptop. Epstein can be seen to be helping the final person attach a wristband.

Committee

An additional image released is a capture of SMS messages from an unnamed person who states they have been supplied "several females" and are demanding "$1000 per girl".

Photo Release Arrives Ahead of DOJ Cut-off

The body has a vast number of images in its custody from the Epstein property, which are "both graphic and mundane," its press release on Thursday noted.

The oversight panel first subpoenaed the property of Epstein, who was found dead in a New York prison in 2019 while pending legal proceedings on allegations of sex trafficking crimes, in August.

The images and records the Epstein property provided to the body are distinct from what is often referred to "the Epstein files". Those files are papers within the Department of Justice's possession related to its own probe into Epstein.

In accordance with the recently passed law, which Donald Trump signed into law in November, the DOJ has until the date of 19 December to release its records. The extent of what is contained in the DOJ's files is unclear, and it's expected that a large amount of the information will be heavily censored, akin to House Oversight Committee releases