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Investigative Body

The Congressional oversight panel has released a batch of around 70 images from the estate of deceased adjudicated sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.

This constitutes the third such release from a tranche of over 95,000 photos the body has secured from Epstein's property. It features pictures of passages from the literary work Lolita scrawled across a female's body, and redacted images of women's overseas passports.

This release occurs just hours before the 19th of December due date for the Justice Department to release all documents connected to its investigation into Epstein.

"These photographs pose additional queries about precisely what the Department of Justice has in its holdings," said the Democratic lead of the panel, Robert Garcia.

What is in the Images Made Public

Some of the photographs made public on Thursday show Epstein speaking with professor and activist Noam Chomsky aboard a private jet; Bill Gates positioned next to a female whose identity is censored; Steve Bannon seated at a desk opposite Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Investigative Body

These are the newest high-net-worth, influential men to be pictured in Epstein property photos released by the oversight panel - earlier published pictures also include US President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton, as well as film director Woody Allen, previous US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, counsel Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and others.

Showing up in the photos is does not constitute proof of any wrongdoing, and several of the featured individuals have stated they were not implicated in Epstein's illegal activity.

In a announcement released with the photo release, Democratic members on the US House Oversight Committee noted the Epstein property holders did not supply background information or timeframes for the pictures.

"Photos were selected to offer the American people with transparency into a illustrative selection of the photos received from the estate, and to provide insights into Epstein's circle and his extremely troubling activities," the release reads.

Oversight Panel

The release also includes several photographs of quotes from the Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita written in ink across different parts of a female's body, including her upper body, feet, pelvis, and back. Lolita recounts the story of a adolescent who was exploited by a middle-aged literature professor.

One passage from the novel inscribed across a woman's upper body reads, "Lolita: the point of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth".

Additionally, there are a number of photos of female identification and identification documents from countries worldwide, like Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Committee

The majority of the details on the IDs, including names and dates of birth, is redacted but the committee said in a press release that the travel documents pertain to "individuals whom Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators were engaging".

A further image shows Epstein seated at a desk in close proximity in the company of three individuals whose identities have been obscured - one individual has her hand on Epstein's torso under his garment, and another individual is bending to examine a close-by device. Epstein seems to be aiding the third put on a bracelet.

Oversight Panel

An additional image made public is a screenshot of SMS messages from an unidentified sender who claims they have been provided "some girls" and are demanding "$$1,000 per girl".

Photo Release Occurs Before DOJ Deadline

The committee has a vast number of images in its holdings from the Epstein estate, which are "simultaneously disturbing and mundane," its statement on this week explained.

The oversight panel first issued a subpoena to the estate of Epstein, who passed away in a New York correctional facility in 2019 while pending legal proceedings on allegations of sex trafficking crimes, in August.

The photographs and documents the Epstein estate submitted to the committee are different than what is often called "the Epstein documents". That material are papers within the DOJ's possession related to its own investigation into Epstein.

Pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Donald Trump enacted last month, the DOJ has until 19 December to disclose its documents. The full nature of what's contained in the DOJ's records is unknown, and it's probable that much of the content will be extensively redacted, similar to the committee's releases