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Oversight Panel

The House investigative committee has published a batch of roughly 70 images obtained from the property of late convicted individual convicted of sex crimes Jeffrey Epstein.

This constitutes the third such disclosure from a cache of more than 95,000 photographs the panel has acquired from Epstein's estate. It includes pictures of quotes from the book Lolita scrawled across a female's body, and censored images of female international passports.

This release occurs hours before the 19th of December cut-off for the DOJ to make public each documents related to its investigation into Epstein.

"These photos pose further questions about precisely what the Justice Department has in its holdings," said the ranking member of the committee, Robert Garcia.

Contents in the Images Disclosed

Several of the photographs released on Thursday show Epstein speaking with scholar and advocate Noam Chomsky inside a private plane; Bill Gates standing next to a female whose face is redacted; Steve Bannon positioned at a desk facing Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Investigative Body

These are the newest wealthy, influential figures to be pictured in Epstein estate photographs released by the House Oversight Committee - earlier disclosed pictures also show US President Donald Trump and ex-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 other figures.

Being pictured in the photos is is not considered evidence of any misconduct, and several of the pictured individuals have stated they were in no way implicated in Epstein's illegal activity.

In a statement accompanying the photograph publication, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee stated the Epstein estate's representatives did not supply context or timings for the photographs.

"Photos were selected to furnish the American people with clarity into a typical cross-section of the photos obtained from the estate, and to give perspectives into Epstein's network and his exceptionally alarming activities," the announcement says.

Oversight Panel

The disclosure also features multiple photos of excerpts from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita inscribed in ink across several locations of a female's body, such as her upper body, feet, pelvis, and spine. Lolita recounts the story of a adolescent who was exploited by a adult literature professor.

An example of a passage from the book written across a female's torso says, "Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue making a journey of three steps down the roof of the mouth to tap, at three, on the teeth".

There are also a collection of images of women's identification and identification documents from states globally, including Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Investigative Body

The majority of the data on the papers, including identities and dates of birth, is censored but the House Oversight Committee said in a announcement that the travel documents are associated with "women whom Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators were involved with".

An additional image shows Epstein sitting at a table closely in the company of three female figures whose faces have been obscured - one has her hand on Epstein's upper body under his garment, and another is crouching to view a adjacent laptop. Epstein appears to be aiding the final person attach a wristband.

Oversight Panel

A further photo made public is a image of text messages from an unnamed person who says they have been sent "several females" and are requesting "$$1,000 per girl".

Image Disclosure Comes Before DOJ Deadline

The panel has a vast number of photographs in its holdings from the Epstein holdings, which are "both explicit and everyday," its statement on Thursday noted.

The Congressional committee first issued a subpoena to the property of Epstein, who was found dead in a New York correctional facility in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of human trafficking, in August.

The photos and documents the Epstein estate's representatives submitted to the body are distinct from what is largely called "Epstein-related records". Those are records within the DOJ's possession connected to its own probe into Epstein.

In accordance with the Transparency Act, which the President signed into law in November, the DOJ has until 19 December to disclose its records. The extent of what is included in the DOJ's files is unclear, and it's likely that a significant portion of the information will be extensively obscured, comparable to the committee's releases