🔗 Share this article

Committee

The House Oversight Committee has released a collection of approximately 70 photographs secured from the holdings of deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This constitutes the third such disclosure from a cache of in excess of 95,000 photographs the body has secured from Epstein's estate. It features photographs of passages from the book Lolita written across a woman's body, and redacted photos of women's international passports.

This disclosure comes just hours before the December 19th deadline for the Justice Department to release every files associated with its inquiry into Epstein.

"These latest photos bring up more questions about precisely what the DOJ has in its possession," remarked the senior Democrat of the panel, Robert Garcia.

What is in the Photographs Made Public

Some of the photographs released on this week feature Epstein in discussion with academic and activist Noam Chomsky aboard a personal aircraft; Bill Gates standing beside a woman whose identity is censored; Steve Bannon positioned at a workstation across from Epstein, and ex- Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a evening meal.

Investigative Body

These are the latest wealthy, prominent individuals to be seen in Epstein property images disclosed by the oversight panel - earlier released images also include US President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton, as well as director Woody Allen, ex- US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and others.

Being pictured in the photos is does not constitute proof of any wrongdoing, and many of the featured individuals have asserted they were not participating in Epstein's criminal activity.

In a press release issued alongside the image disclosure, Lawmakers on the US House Oversight Committee said the Epstein estate did not offer context or dates for the images.

"Images were picked to offer the public with clarity into a illustrative selection of the photographs received from the estate, and to provide understanding into Epstein's circle and his exceptionally troubling activities," the announcement says.

Investigative Body

The disclosure also contains a number of photographs of excerpts from the Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita penned in black ink across different parts of a woman's body, such as her upper body, feet, hipbone, and rear. Lolita recounts the tale of a adolescent who was groomed by a middle-aged literature professor.

An example of a excerpt from the work inscribed across a woman's torso says, "Lolita's name: the point 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 photos of women's identification and ID papers from countries around the world, like Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Investigative Body

Most of the information on the IDs, including names and dates of birth, is censored but the committee stated in a announcement that the passports pertain to "females whom Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators were involved with".

Another photograph features Epstein seated at a workstation in close proximity in the company of three individuals whose identities have been redacted - a first has her palm on Epstein's chest under his shirt, and another individual is crouching to look at a nearby device. Epstein can be seen to be aiding the third attach a bracelet.

Oversight Panel

An additional photograph made public is a capture of SMS messages from an unidentified sender who claims they have been provided "a number of girls" and are demanding "$1000 per girl".

Photograph Publication Occurs Before DOJ Cut-off

The committee has many thousands of images in its custody from the Epstein property, which are "at once graphic and everyday," its announcement on recently noted.

The Congressional committee first legally compelled the holdings of Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019 while pending legal proceedings on accusations of sex trafficking crimes, in August.

The photographs and records the Epstein property gave to the committee are distinct from what is often referred to "the Epstein documents". Those are documents in the DOJ's possession connected to its separate investigation into Epstein.

Under the Transparency Act, which President Trump signed into law recently, the DOJ has until 19 December to disclose its records. The scope of what's found in the DOJ's files is not publicly known, and it's expected that a large amount of the material will be heavily obscured, akin to House Oversight Committee releases