🔗 Share this article

Committee

The House Oversight Committee has released a collection of around 70 photos secured from the holdings of former found guilty sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This constitutes the third such publication from a cache of over 95,000 photographs the committee has obtained from Epstein's property. It features images of passages from the literary work Lolita inscribed across a female's body, and obscured images of female overseas passports.

This action comes just hours before the December 19th deadline for the DOJ to disclose every records associated with its probe into Epstein.

"These latest photos raise additional questions about exactly what the Department of Justice has in its possession," stated the ranking member of the panel, Robert Garcia.

Contents in the Images Released

A number of the photographs published on this week feature Epstein conversing with scholar and advocate Noam Chomsky aboard a personal aircraft; Bill Gates positioned next to a woman whose face is censored; Steve Bannon positioned at a workstation opposite Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner event.

Committee

These are the latest wealthy, influential figures to be photographed in Epstein property images released by the committee - previously disclosed photos also include US President Donald Trump and past 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 additional individuals.

Showing up in the photos is does not constitute evidence of any wrongdoing, and several of the photographed men have said they were not implicated in Epstein's criminal activity.

In a statement issued alongside the image publication, Lawmakers on the US House Oversight Committee noted the Epstein estate's representatives did not provide background information or dates for the pictures.

"Photos were picked to provide the public with clarity into a typical cross-section of the images obtained from the property, and to offer perspectives into Epstein's circle and his extremely troubling actions," the release reads.

Oversight Panel

The disclosure also includes several photographs of excerpts from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita inscribed in black ink across different parts of a female's body, such as her torso, feet, hipbone, and spine. Lolita recounts the account of a young girl who was manipulated by a older literature professor.

An example of a quote from the book written across a female's chest states, "Lolita: the end of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the mouth to alight, at three, on the teeth".

Additionally, there are a collection of images of female passports and official papers from countries worldwide, like Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Oversight Panel

The majority of the data on the documents, like names and birth dates, is redacted but the House Oversight Committee said in a statement that the travel documents belong to "women whom Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators were interacting with".

An additional photo features Epstein sitting at a desk in close proximity in the company of three individuals whose features have been redacted - a first has her palm on Epstein's torso under his garment, and another is bending to look at a nearby device. Epstein appears to be assisting the final person fasten a wristband.

Oversight Panel

An additional image disclosed is a screenshot of SMS messages from an unknown sender who says they have been sent "a number of girls" and are requesting "$$1,000 for each individual".

Photo Publication Arrives Before DOJ Deadline

The body has thousands of photos in its custody from the Epstein estate, which are "at once graphic and ordinary," its press release on Thursday noted.

The House Oversight Committee first issued a subpoena to the property of Epstein, who was found dead in a New York prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on allegations of human trafficking, in August.

The images and records the Epstein estate provided to the committee are distinct from what is commonly called "the Epstein documents". Those are documents within the justice department's custody associated with its independent probe into Epstein.

Under the Transparency Act, which the President signed into law recently, the DOJ has until 19 December to release its documents. The scope of what is contained in the DOJ's documents is unknown, and it's expected that a large amount of the content will be heavily censored, akin to House Oversight Committee documents