Lawmakers Disclose Newest Batch of Epstein Photos as Department of Justice Deadline Looms

Oversight Panel

The House investigative committee has published a set of roughly 70 images from the estate of deceased convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.

This constitutes the latest in a series of disclosure from a larger collection of more than 95,000 images the body has secured from Epstein's property. It contains pictures of excerpts from the literary work Lolita scrawled across a female's body, and censored pictures of women's overseas passports.

This disclosure comes hours before the 19 December due date for the Department of Justice to make public all records connected to its probe into Epstein.

"These new photos bring up more inquiries about precisely what the DOJ has in its custody," remarked the senior Democrat of the committee, Robert Garcia.

What is in the Photos Released

Several of the images made public on Thursday show Epstein speaking with academic and activist Noam Chomsky inside a personal aircraft; Bill Gates standing alongside a woman whose face is obscured; Steve Bannon sitting at a table facing Epstein, and ex- Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a evening meal.

Oversight Panel

These are the most recent wealthy, influential figures to be pictured in Epstein property images published by the oversight panel - earlier released pictures also include US President Donald Trump and ex-president Bill Clinton, as well as movie director Woody Allen, ex- US Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and other figures.

Being pictured in the images is is not considered proof of any wrongdoing, and several of the photographed men have asserted they were in no way participating in Epstein's criminal activity.

In a statement issued alongside the photograph disclosure, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee said the Epstein property holders did not offer context or timings for the pictures.

"Photographs were picked to furnish the public with clarity into a representative sample of the photographs acquired from the property, and to give perspectives into Epstein's network and his extremely alarming actions," the statement reads.

Committee

The publication also features multiple photos of excerpts from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita written in dark ink across several locations of a woman's body, such as her upper body, foot, hip, and rear. Lolita tells the account of a adolescent who was manipulated by a older literature professor.

One excerpt from the work scrawled across a woman's upper body says, "Lo-lee-ta: the end of the tongue making a journey of three steps down the roof of the mouth to alight, at three, on the teeth".

Additionally, there are a number of images of women's identification and official papers from countries globally, including Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Committee

Most of the details on the documents, such as names and birth dates, is censored but the House Oversight Committee indicated in a announcement that the passports belong to "women whom Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators were involved with".

A further image features Epstein seated at a desk intimately surrounded by three women whose faces have been censored - a first has her palm on Epstein's upper body under his garment, and another is crouching to examine a close-by laptop. Epstein can be seen to be assisting the third put on a bracelet.

Oversight Panel

Another image disclosed is a capture of text messages from an unidentified individual who states they have been sent "a number of girls" and are asking for "$one thousand dollars per girl".

Photo Disclosure Arrives Ahead of DOJ Due Date

The panel has thousands of photos in its possession from the Epstein estate, which are "both graphic and everyday," its statement on Thursday clarified.

The Congressional committee first subpoenaed the property of Epstein, who passed away in a New York prison in 2019 while facing trial on allegations of sex trafficking, in August.

The photographs and records the Epstein property gave to the body are distinct from what is commonly termed "Epstein-related records". Those are papers within the DOJ's possession connected to its separate investigation into Epstein.

Pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Trump enacted in November, the DOJ has a deadline of 19 December to release its records. The full nature of what is found in the DOJ's files is unknown, and it's expected that a large amount of the information will be extensively censored, akin to the committee's materials