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Oversight Panel

The House investigative committee has made public a collection of roughly 70 photos from the estate of deceased found guilty sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This constitutes the third such release from a larger collection of over 95,000 photographs the panel has obtained from Epstein's estate. It features photographs of quotes from the book Lolita inscribed across a woman's body, and redacted images of female foreign passports.

This disclosure occurs just hours before the 19th of December due date for the Department of Justice to release every documents related to its inquiry into Epstein.

"These latest photographs raise more inquiries about exactly what the Justice Department has in its holdings," said the senior Democrat of the panel, Robert Garcia.

What is in the Images Made Public

Several of the images published on this week feature Epstein in discussion with professor and activist Noam Chomsky aboard a private plane; Bill Gates seen alongside a female whose identity is redacted; Steve Bannon sitting at a workstation across from Epstein, and previous Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Committee

These are the latest affluent, influential individuals to be seen in Epstein estate photographs released by the House Oversight Committee - formerly disclosed pictures also show US President Donald Trump and past president Bill Clinton, as well as movie director Woody Allen, ex- US treasury secretary Larry Summers, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and others.

Being pictured in the photographs is does not constitute indication of any wrongdoing, and several of the photographed individuals have asserted they were not participating in Epstein's criminal activity.

In a press release issued alongside the photograph publication, Lawmakers on the US House Oversight Committee noted the Epstein estate's representatives did not provide explanatory details or dates for the pictures.

"Images were chosen to offer the American people with clarity into a representative sample of the photographs obtained from the estate, and to give understanding into Epstein's network and his profoundly alarming activities," the release says.

Oversight Panel

The disclosure also contains a number of photos of quotes from the Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita written in dark ink across various areas of a female's body, such as her torso, lower extremity, hip, and back. Lolita tells the account of a young girl who was manipulated by a middle-aged literature professor.

A particular excerpt from the novel inscribed across a female's upper body reads, "Lolita's name: the tip of the tongue traveling of three steps down the mouth to alight, at three, on the teeth".

The release also contains a series of photographs of female passports and ID papers from states globally, including Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Oversight Panel

Most of the information on the papers, such as identities and dates of birth, is obscured but the House Oversight Committee stated in a statement that the passports are associated with "individuals whom Jeffrey Epstein and his associates were engaging".

Another photo shows Epstein sitting at a desk intimately surrounded by three female figures whose features have been censored - one has her palm on Epstein's upper body under his shirt, and another is bending to examine a close-by laptop. Epstein seems to be helping the final person put on a piece of jewelry.

Oversight Panel

Another image released is a screenshot of SMS messages from an unknown person who says they have been provided "several females" and are demanding "$$1,000 per female".

Image Release Arrives Before DOJ Cut-off

The body has many thousands of photographs in its holdings from the Epstein estate, which are "at once graphic and ordinary," its press release on this week noted.

The House Oversight Committee first issued a subpoena to the holdings of Epstein, who died in a New York prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on accusations of sex trafficking crimes, in August.

The photos and documents the Epstein estate provided to the body are different than what is commonly called "Epstein-related records". Those are papers in the DOJ's control associated with its independent inquiry into Epstein.

Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Donald Trump enacted last month, the DOJ has until 19 December to publish its records. The extent of what is contained in the DOJ's documents is unclear, and it's probable that much of the material will be heavily obscured, similar to the committee's materials