🔗 Share this article

Investigative Body

The House investigative committee has made public a batch of approximately 70 photographs secured from the holdings of former found guilty sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.

This marks the third disclosure from a cache of more than 95,000 images the committee has secured from Epstein's property. It contains photographs of quotes from the novel Lolita inscribed across a woman's body, and censored images of female overseas passports.

This disclosure occurs mere hours before the December 19th deadline for the DOJ to disclose all documents associated with its investigation into Epstein.

"These new images pose further queries about what exactly the Justice Department has in its custody," said the senior Democrat of the committee, Robert Garcia.

What's in the Photos Released

Several of the photographs made public on Thursday depict Epstein speaking with academic and activist Noam Chomsky aboard a private plane; Bill Gates seen alongside a individual whose features is obscured; Steve Bannon seated at a workstation facing Epstein, and previous Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a evening meal.

Committee

These are the most recent high-net-worth, prominent figures to be pictured in Epstein's estate images released by the oversight panel - formerly disclosed photos also show US President Donald Trump and ex-president Bill Clinton, as well as movie director Woody Allen, previous US Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and additional individuals.

Being pictured in the images is is not considered evidence of any wrongdoing, and many of the featured individuals have stated they were never involved in Epstein's illegal activity.

In a announcement accompanying the photograph publication, Lawmakers on the US House Oversight Committee noted the Epstein estate did not supply background information or timings for the pictures.

"Photographs were selected to offer the American people with clarity into a representative sample of the photos received from the estate, and to give insights into Epstein's circle and his profoundly disturbing actions," the statement says.

Committee

The release also includes a number of images of excerpts from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita penned in black ink across various areas of a woman's body, like her chest, foot, hip, and spine. Lolita narrates the account of a young girl who was manipulated by a adult literature professor.

One quote from the book inscribed across a female's upper body states, "Lo-lee-ta: the end of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the roof of the mouth to land, at three, on the teeth".

There are also a series of photos of female travel documents and ID papers from countries around the world, including Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Investigative Body

Most of the data on the documents, like names and DOBs, is censored but the House Oversight Committee stated in a statement that the passports are associated with "females whom Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators were interacting with".

An additional photo shows Epstein positioned at a desk closely in the company of three individuals whose faces have been obscured - a first has her palm on Epstein's torso under his clothing, and a second is crouching to examine a close-by computer. Epstein appears to be assisting the final person fasten a piece of jewelry.

Committee

An additional photograph released is a screenshot of text messages from an unidentified person who states they have been supplied "some girls" and are requesting "$$1,000 for each individual".

Photograph Disclosure Occurs Ahead of DOJ Cut-off

The body has many thousands of photos in its possession from the Epstein holdings, which are "both disturbing and mundane," its press release 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 allegations of sex trafficking, in August.

The images and records the Epstein estate's representatives provided to the body are distinct from what is commonly termed "the Epstein documents". That material are records under the justice department's control related to its separate probe into Epstein.

Pursuant to the Transparency Act, which Donald Trump made law last month, the DOJ has a deadline of 19 December to release its documents. The scope of what is contained in the DOJ's files is unknown, and it's probable that much of the content will be significantly obscured, comparable to the committee's materials