🔗 Share this article

Oversight Panel

The Congressional oversight panel has made public a set of approximately 70 photos obtained from the property of late convicted individual convicted of sex crimes Jeffrey Epstein.

This represents the third publication from a larger collection of over 95,000 images the panel has acquired from Epstein's holdings. It contains pictures of quotes from the book Lolita inscribed across a woman's body, and redacted pictures of female international passports.

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

"These latest photos bring up further inquiries about precisely what the Justice Department has in its holdings," stated the senior Democrat of the committee, Robert Garcia.

What is in the Photographs Made Public

Some of the images released on Thursday feature Epstein speaking with professor and activist Noam Chomsky inside a private plane; Bill Gates positioned next to a individual whose features is obscured; Steve Bannon seated at a desk across from Epstein, and ex- Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Oversight Panel

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

Being pictured in the images is not indication of any wrongdoing, and a number of the featured individuals have said they were never involved in Epstein's criminal activity.

In a announcement issued alongside the image publication, Lawmakers on the US House Oversight Committee said the Epstein property holders did not offer background information or timings for the images.

"Photographs were picked to furnish the general populace with transparency into a illustrative selection of the images received from the holdings, and to provide insights into Epstein's circle and his profoundly disturbing activities," the statement says.

Committee

The disclosure also features multiple photographs of excerpts from the Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita inscribed in black ink across different parts of a woman's body, including her chest, foot, hip, and back. Lolita narrates the tale of a adolescent who was manipulated by a adult literature professor.

A particular quote from the work inscribed across a female's chest states, "Lo-lee-ta: the end of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to alight, at three, on the teeth".

The release also contains a number of images of female travel documents and ID papers from countries around the world, like Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Investigative Body

The majority of the information on the documents, like identities and birth dates, is redacted but the House Oversight Committee indicated in a announcement that the passports are associated with "women whom Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators were involved with".

A further photo shows Epstein positioned at a workstation closely flanked by three women whose identities have been redacted - a first has her palm on Epstein's chest under his clothing, and another is bending to view a close-by device. Epstein can be seen to be aiding the final person fasten a piece of jewelry.

Committee

An additional photograph released is a capture of text messages from an unknown individual who states they have been supplied "a number of girls" and are asking for "$$1,000 for each individual".

Image Release Occurs Ahead of DOJ Due Date

The body has thousands of photos in its custody from the Epstein estate, which are "simultaneously disturbing and ordinary," its statement on this week explained.

The Congressional committee first legally compelled the holdings of Epstein, who was found dead in a New York prison in 2019 while pending legal proceedings on accusations of sex trafficking, in August.

The photographs and documents the Epstein estate's representatives provided to the body are different than what is commonly referred to "the Epstein files". Those are papers under the DOJ's control associated with its independent probe into Epstein.

Pursuant to the recently passed law, which the President signed into law last month, the DOJ has until the date of 19 December to release its records. The full nature of what's found in the DOJ's records is unknown, and it's expected that a significant portion of the material will be extensively censored, similar to House Oversight Committee documents