🔗 Share this article

Committee

The Congressional oversight panel has published a collection of approximately 70 images secured from the holdings of late found guilty sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.

This constitutes the third disclosure from a tranche of more than 95,000 photographs the body has obtained from Epstein's property. It includes images of quotes from the book Lolita written across a female's body, and censored pictures of female international passports.

This disclosure arrives just hours before the 19th of December deadline for the Department of Justice to disclose every documents related to its investigation into Epstein.

"These latest images raise more questions about what exactly the Department of Justice has in its holdings," stated the senior Democrat of the panel, Robert Garcia.

What is in the Photographs Made Public

Some of the photographs made public on this week depict Epstein conversing with professor and activist Noam Chomsky inside a private plane; Bill Gates positioned alongside a woman whose features is redacted; Steve Bannon positioned at a table facing Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner event.

Oversight Panel

These are the most recent affluent, influential figures to be pictured in Epstein property images disclosed by the House Oversight Committee - previously released pictures also include US President Donald Trump and ex-president Bill Clinton, as well as director Woody Allen, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, counsel Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and additional individuals.

Appearing in the images is does not constitute evidence of any illegal activity, and many of the photographed individuals have said they were not involved in Epstein's illegal activity.

In a announcement issued alongside the photograph release, Lawmakers on the US House Oversight Committee stated the Epstein estate's representatives did not supply context or dates for the photographs.

"Images were chosen to offer the general populace with transparency into a typical cross-section of the images received from the holdings, and to give understanding into Epstein's associates and his profoundly disturbing behavior," the statement states.

Investigative Body

The disclosure also contains a number of photographs of quotes from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita inscribed in dark ink across various areas of a woman's body, like her upper body, foot, hip, and back. Lolita tells the account of a minor who was manipulated by a older literature professor.

One passage from the book inscribed across a female's upper body reads, "Lolita: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to land, at three, on the teeth".

There are also a series of photographs of women's passports and official papers from nations globally, like Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Investigative Body

A large portion of the data on the IDs, including names and dates of birth, is redacted but the panel said in a press release that the passports belong to "women whom Jeffrey Epstein and his associates were engaging".

Another image depicts Epstein seated at a workstation closely surrounded by three female figures whose faces have been redacted - one has her palm on Epstein's upper body under his shirt, and another individual is bending to view a adjacent computer. Epstein can be seen to be assisting the third fasten a wristband.

Oversight Panel

Another photo made public is a screenshot of SMS messages from an unidentified sender who states they have been provided "a number of girls" and are requesting "$$1,000 per female".

Photograph Disclosure Arrives Ahead of DOJ Due Date

The body has many thousands of photographs in its custody from the Epstein estate, which are "at once disturbing and everyday," its statement on this week noted.

The oversight panel first legally compelled the property of Epstein, who passed away in a New York correctional facility in 2019 while pending legal proceedings on allegations of human trafficking, in August.

The images and records the Epstein property provided to the panel are different than what is commonly called "the Epstein files". Those files are records under the DOJ's possession associated with its own probe into Epstein.

Under the Transparency Act, which President Trump made law in November, the DOJ has until 19 December to release its records. The scope of the contents found in the DOJ's records is unknown, and it's probable that a significant portion of the content will be heavily obscured, akin to House Oversight Committee documents