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Committee

The Congressional oversight panel has published a batch of roughly 70 photographs from the estate of late found guilty sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This represents the third release from a tranche of in excess of 95,000 photos the body has obtained from Epstein's holdings. It features photographs of quotes from the literary work Lolita written across a female's body, and obscured photos of female overseas passports.

This action arrives just hours before the December 19th deadline for the Department of Justice to make public all records associated with its inquiry into Epstein.

"These latest images bring up more queries about what exactly the Department of Justice has in its holdings," stated the senior Democrat of the committee, Robert Garcia.

What's in the Images Released

A number of the photos made public on Thursday depict Epstein in discussion with professor and activist Noam Chomsky aboard a private plane; Bill Gates seen beside a woman whose features is redacted; Steve Bannon seated at a table across from Epstein, and previous Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Oversight Panel

These are the latest affluent, powerful individuals to be photographed in Epstein property photographs released by the House Oversight Committee - earlier published photos also include US President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton, as well as movie director Woody Allen, previous US Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers, counsel Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and additional individuals.

Appearing in the photographs is is not considered indication of any wrongdoing, and many of the pictured figures have asserted they were not involved in Epstein's unlawful actions.

In a announcement issued alongside the photo disclosure, Lawmakers on the US House Oversight Committee stated the Epstein property holders did not supply background information or timings for the photographs.

"Photos were picked to furnish the public with transparency into a typical cross-section of the photographs acquired from the holdings, and to offer perspectives into Epstein's circle and his extremely troubling actions," the statement reads.

Oversight Panel

The disclosure also contains a number of photos of passages from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita written in ink across various areas of a woman's body, including her upper body, lower extremity, pelvis, and spine. Lolita tells the tale of a young girl who was groomed by a middle-aged literature professor.

An example of a passage from the novel written across a female's chest reads, "Lo-lee-ta: the end of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to land, at three, on the teeth".

The release also contains a number of photos of women's passports and identification documents from countries worldwide, such as Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Investigative Body

The majority of the details on the papers, like identities and dates of birth, is censored but the House Oversight Committee indicated in a announcement that the passports belong to "females whom Jeffrey Epstein and his associates were interacting with".

An additional photo features Epstein seated at a workstation in close proximity in the company of three individuals whose identities have been obscured - one individual has her palm on Epstein's upper body under his clothing, and another is leaning to examine a nearby laptop. Epstein can be seen to be aiding the third individual put on a piece of jewelry.

Oversight Panel

An additional photograph released is a screenshot of digital messages from an unknown sender who says they have been supplied "several females" and are demanding "$$1,000 per girl".

Photograph Release Occurs Prior to DOJ Cut-off

The committee has thousands of photographs in its custody from the Epstein holdings, which are "simultaneously graphic and everyday," its press release on recently clarified.

The Congressional committee first legally compelled the holdings of Epstein, who was found dead in a New York jail in 2019 while facing trial on charges of sex trafficking crimes, in August.

The images and documents the Epstein estate gave to the panel are different than what is commonly referred to "the Epstein files". That material are records in the Department of Justice's custody connected to its separate inquiry into Epstein.

In accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Trump enacted in November, the DOJ has a deadline of 19 December to publish its records. The full nature of what's found in the DOJ's files is not publicly known, and it's likely that much of the content will be heavily redacted, akin to House Oversight Committee releases