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Investigative Body

The House Oversight Committee has made public a batch of around 70 photos obtained from the property of former adjudicated sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.

This constitutes the third such disclosure from a cache of in excess of 95,000 photographs the committee has obtained from Epstein's estate. It includes images of quotes from the novel Lolita scrawled across a female's body, and redacted pictures of women's international passports.

This disclosure comes mere hours before the 19 December cut-off for the DOJ to disclose each documents related to its investigation into Epstein.

"These new photos pose additional inquiries about what exactly the Justice Department has in its possession," said the senior Democrat of the committee, Robert Garcia.

What's in the Photos Disclosed

A number of the images released on recently feature Epstein in discussion with academic and activist Noam Chomsky aboard a private jet; Bill Gates standing alongside a female whose face is obscured; Steve Bannon positioned at a workstation facing Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner event.

Committee

These are the newest affluent, powerful men to be seen in Epstein property photos released by the oversight panel - previously released pictures also show US President Donald Trump and past president Bill Clinton, as well as director Woody Allen, previous US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, attorney Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and others.

Being pictured in the photographs is does not constitute evidence of any misconduct, and many of the pictured men have stated they were in no way implicated in Epstein's unlawful actions.

In a statement released with the photo publication, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee noted the Epstein estate did not supply context or timings for the images.

"Photos were picked to provide the public with clarity into a typical cross-section of the photos obtained from the property, and to give perspectives into Epstein's network and his profoundly disturbing behavior," the release says.

Committee

The release also contains several photographs of quotes from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita inscribed in black ink across various areas of a female's body, like her upper body, feet, pelvis, and back. Lolita tells the story of a adolescent who was groomed by a older literature professor.

An example of a passage from the work inscribed across a woman's chest states, "Lolita's name: the point of the tongue traveling of three steps down the palate to land, at three, on the teeth".

The release also contains a series of images of women's identification and identification documents from countries worldwide, including Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Committee

Most of the details on the papers, such as identities and dates of birth, is redacted but the panel said in a press release that the passports are associated with "women whom Jeffrey Epstein and his associates were engaging".

A further photo depicts Epstein positioned at a workstation in close proximity surrounded by three women whose faces have been censored - a first has her hand on Epstein's torso under his clothing, and a second is leaning to view a nearby device. Epstein seems to be assisting the final person attach a piece of jewelry.

Committee

A further photo made public is a image of SMS messages from an unidentified individual who claims they have been provided "some girls" and are demanding "$one thousand dollars per female".

Photograph Disclosure Comes Ahead of DOJ Cut-off

The committee has a vast number of photographs in its possession from the Epstein property, which are "both explicit and everyday," its statement on this week noted.

The oversight panel first subpoenaed the estate of Epstein, who died in a New York prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking, in August.

The images and files the Epstein property gave to the committee are distinct from what is often termed "Epstein-related records". Those files are documents in the DOJ's custody associated with its independent inquiry into Epstein.

In accordance with the Transparency Act, which the President enacted in November, the DOJ has until the date of 19 December to release its records. The extent of what is contained in the DOJ's files is unknown, and it's expected that a significant portion of the information will be heavily censored, comparable to House Oversight Committee documents