🔗 Share this article

Investigative Body

The House Oversight Committee has made public a collection of roughly 70 photos obtained from the property of late adjudicated individual convicted of sex crimes Jeffrey Epstein.

This constitutes the third such release from a larger collection of in excess of 95,000 photos the panel has acquired from Epstein's estate. It includes photographs of excerpts from the literary work Lolita written across a female's body, and censored photos of women's overseas passports.

This release arrives mere hours before the 19 December cut-off for the Justice Department to release every documents related to its inquiry into Epstein.

"These photos raise additional queries about precisely what the Justice Department has in its possession," stated the senior Democrat of the committee, Robert Garcia.

What's in the Photos Made Public

Several of the photos released on this week show Epstein in discussion with academic and activist Noam Chomsky on a private plane; Bill Gates standing beside a individual whose identity is obscured; Steve Bannon sitting at a desk facing Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Oversight Panel

These are the most recent wealthy, influential individuals to be seen in Epstein estate photographs disclosed by the House Oversight Committee - previously released images also depict US President Donald Trump and past president Bill Clinton, as well as movie director Woody Allen, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, attorney Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and other figures.

Being pictured in the images is is not considered proof of any misconduct, and a number of the featured figures have said they were in no way implicated in Epstein's criminal activity.

In a announcement accompanying the photograph release, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee stated the Epstein property holders did not provide context or timings for the images.

"Photos were picked to provide the general populace with transparency into a representative sample of the photographs obtained from the holdings, and to offer understanding into Epstein's associates and his profoundly disturbing activities," the announcement says.

Oversight Panel

The disclosure also contains several photos of excerpts from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita penned in ink across various areas of a female's body, such as her torso, feet, hip, and spine. Lolita tells the story of a minor who was exploited by a middle-aged literature professor.

A particular excerpt from the book inscribed across a woman's upper body reads, "Lolita's name: the tip of the tongue traveling of three steps down the roof of the mouth to alight, at three, on the teeth".

The release also contains a series of photographs of female passports and identification documents from countries worldwide, including Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Committee

A large portion of the details on the documents, including names and birth dates, is obscured but the panel stated in a press release that the passports pertain to "women whom Jeffrey Epstein and his associates were involved with".

Another photo shows Epstein seated at a table in close proximity surrounded by three individuals whose features have been censored - one individual has her hand on Epstein's chest under his garment, and another is leaning to examine a close-by computer. Epstein can be seen to be assisting the third individual fasten a bracelet.

Oversight Panel

An additional photo made public is a image of digital messages from an unnamed person who claims they have been sent "several females" and are asking for "$one thousand dollars per girl".

Photograph Publication Comes Before DOJ Due Date

The body has many thousands of images in its holdings from the Epstein property, which are "simultaneously disturbing and everyday," its announcement on Thursday explained.

The oversight panel first issued a subpoena to the holdings of Epstein, who passed away in a New York prison in 2019 while pending legal proceedings on allegations of sex trafficking, in August.

The photos and records the Epstein estate's representatives provided to the body are different than what is largely termed "the Epstein files". Those are documents in the justice department's custody connected to its separate inquiry into Epstein.

Under the recently passed law, which the President signed into law last month, the DOJ has a deadline of 19 December to disclose its files. The full nature of what's included in the DOJ's records is unclear, and it's expected that a significant portion of the information will be significantly censored, similar to Congressional materials