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Investigative Body

The Congressional oversight panel has made public a set of around 70 photographs secured from the holdings of late convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.

This represents the third publication from a tranche of in excess of 95,000 photos the panel has acquired from Epstein's estate. It features photographs of passages from the novel Lolita written across a woman's body, and obscured pictures of women's international passports.

This disclosure arrives hours before the 19 December due date for the Department of Justice to make public every files associated with its probe into Epstein.

"These images raise more questions about exactly what the DOJ has in its holdings," remarked the senior Democrat of the panel, Robert Garcia.

What's in the Images Disclosed

Some of the images published on this week show Epstein in discussion with academic and activist Noam Chomsky aboard a private plane; Bill Gates seen next to a individual whose identity is obscured; Steve Bannon seated at a table facing Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Investigative Body

These are the latest wealthy, prominent individuals to be photographed in Epstein's estate photos disclosed by the House Oversight Committee - earlier released photos also depict US President Donald Trump and ex-president Bill Clinton, as well as director Woody Allen, ex- US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, attorney Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and additional individuals.

Appearing in the photos is does not constitute evidence of any misconduct, and many of the pictured figures have said they were not involved in Epstein's unlawful actions.

In a statement issued alongside the image release, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee stated the Epstein estate did not offer explanatory details or timings for the pictures.

"Photographs were picked to furnish the American people with clarity into a illustrative selection of the images received from the holdings, and to give perspectives into Epstein's circle and his profoundly troubling behavior," the statement states.

Committee

The disclosure also features multiple photos of passages from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita inscribed in dark ink across different parts of a female's body, like her torso, feet, pelvis, and spine. Lolita tells the tale of a minor who was manipulated by a middle-aged literature professor.

An example of a quote from the book written across a female's upper body states, "Lolita: the end of the tongue making a journey of three steps down the mouth to land, at three, on the teeth".

The release also contains a number of photographs of women's travel documents and ID papers from countries around the world, like Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Oversight Panel

A large portion of the data on the documents, like names and dates of birth, is redacted but the House Oversight Committee said in a press release that the travel documents are associated with "women whom Jeffrey Epstein and his associates were engaging".

Another image depicts Epstein positioned at a table intimately in the company of three women whose faces have been censored - a first has her palm on Epstein's upper body under his garment, and another individual is crouching to examine a nearby device. Epstein appears to be assisting the final person put on a wristband.

Oversight Panel

An additional image disclosed is a capture of SMS messages from an unnamed person who says they have been provided "a number of girls" and are demanding "$one thousand dollars per girl".

Image Publication Comes Ahead of DOJ Cut-off

The body has many thousands of images in its custody from the Epstein property, which are "both disturbing and ordinary," its announcement on this week noted.

The House Oversight Committee first legally compelled the estate of Epstein, who passed away in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking, in August.

The images and documents the Epstein property submitted to the committee are different than what is commonly termed "the Epstein documents". Those files are records within the Department of Justice's control related to its separate probe into Epstein.

Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Donald Trump enacted recently, the DOJ has until 19 December to publish its files. The full nature of what is included in the DOJ's documents is unknown, and it's probable that a large amount of the material will be significantly censored, comparable to Congressional releases