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Oversight Panel

The House investigative committee has released a batch of approximately 70 photographs obtained from the property of former found guilty individual convicted of sex crimes Jeffrey Epstein.

This marks the third such release from a larger collection of in excess of 95,000 photographs the committee has secured from Epstein's estate. It includes pictures of excerpts from the novel Lolita scrawled across a female's body, and redacted photos of female international passports.

This action comes mere hours before the 19th of December cut-off for the Department of Justice to release every records related to its probe into Epstein.

"These new photos pose further inquiries about precisely what the Justice Department has in its possession," said the senior Democrat of the committee, Robert Garcia.

What's in the Photos Disclosed

Some of the images published on Thursday show Epstein in discussion with scholar and advocate Noam Chomsky aboard a private plane; Bill Gates positioned beside a individual whose identity is censored; Steve Bannon seated at a table opposite Epstein, and ex- Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Oversight Panel

These are the latest wealthy, influential men to be photographed in Epstein estate photos released by the House Oversight Committee - previously disclosed images also include US President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton, as well as film director Woody Allen, ex- US Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and others.

Being pictured in the photographs is not evidence of any illegal activity, and many of the pictured individuals have stated they were not participating in Epstein's illegal activity.

In a statement released with the image disclosure, Lawmakers on the US House Oversight Committee noted the Epstein estate did not offer explanatory details or timeframes for the images.

"Images 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 circle and his extremely disturbing actions," the announcement reads.

Oversight Panel

The release also includes a number of photos of passages from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita written in ink across various areas of a female's body, such as her torso, lower extremity, pelvis, and rear. Lolita recounts the tale of a young girl who was manipulated by a adult literature professor.

A particular quote from the book written across a woman's chest states, "Lolita's name: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the mouth to alight, at three, on the teeth".

There are also a series of photographs of female travel documents and ID papers from nations globally, like Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Committee

A large portion of the information on the IDs, including identities and DOBs, is censored but the panel stated in a announcement that the travel documents belong to "individuals whom Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators were involved with".

Another photo depicts Epstein positioned at a table in close proximity flanked by three female figures whose identities have been redacted - one individual has her palm on Epstein's upper body under his clothing, and another individual is leaning to examine a adjacent device. Epstein appears to be assisting the third individual attach a piece of jewelry.

Committee

Another photo released is a screenshot of text messages from an unnamed individual who says they have been sent "a number of girls" and are requesting "$$1,000 per girl".

Photo Publication Occurs Prior to DOJ Deadline

The body has many thousands of photographs in its custody from the Epstein estate, which are "simultaneously graphic and mundane," its announcement on Thursday clarified.

The oversight panel first subpoenaed the property of Epstein, who died in a New York correctional facility in 2019 while facing trial on allegations of human trafficking, in August.

The images and files the Epstein estate gave to the panel are separate from what is largely termed "Epstein-related records". That material are papers in the justice department's custody connected to its separate inquiry into Epstein.

Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Donald Trump signed into law last month, the DOJ has until the date of 19 December to publish its records. The full nature of what's included in the DOJ's files is unclear, and it's expected that much of the information will be heavily censored, akin to House Oversight Committee documents