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Oversight Panel

The Congressional oversight panel has published a set of roughly 70 images from the estate of late convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.

This constitutes the third such publication from a cache of over 95,000 images the committee has obtained from Epstein's property. It features images of excerpts from the book Lolita scrawled across a woman's body, and censored images of female international passports.

This disclosure comes hours before the 19 December deadline for the DOJ to disclose all files related to its probe into Epstein.

"These latest images raise further queries about precisely what the Department of Justice has in its custody," remarked the Democratic lead of the committee, Robert Garcia.

What is in the Images Released

A number of the images published on Thursday feature Epstein speaking with professor and activist Noam Chomsky inside a private jet; Bill Gates positioned beside a woman whose features is censored; Steve Bannon positioned at a desk across from Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Committee

These are the most recent wealthy, powerful figures to be pictured in Epstein estate images released by the oversight panel - earlier published photos also show US President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton, as well as director Woody Allen, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, counsel Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and other figures.

Being pictured in the photographs is not proof of any wrongdoing, and several of the pictured figures have said they were in no way participating in Epstein's unlawful actions.

In a announcement accompanying the image release, Democratic members on the US House Oversight Committee said the Epstein property holders did not offer context or timings for the pictures.

"Images were picked to furnish the public with clarity into a illustrative selection of the photographs received from the property, and to give insights into Epstein's associates and his profoundly disturbing behavior," the statement reads.

Committee

The release also contains multiple photos of excerpts from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita inscribed in dark ink across several locations of a female's body, like her upper body, lower extremity, hip, and spine. Lolita narrates the tale of a adolescent who was manipulated by a older literature professor.

One excerpt from the novel scrawled across a female's upper body reads, "Lo-lee-ta: the point of the tongue traveling of three steps down the roof of the mouth to tap, at three, on the teeth".

The release also contains a number of images of women's identification and ID papers from states around the world, including Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Committee

The majority of the data on the papers, like identities and dates of birth, is censored but the panel indicated in a announcement that the travel documents belong to "females whom Jeffrey Epstein and his conspirators were interacting with".

A further image shows Epstein sitting at a workstation in close proximity flanked by three female figures whose identities have been redacted - one individual has her hand on Epstein's chest under his shirt, and another is leaning to examine a nearby computer. Epstein appears to be helping the final person attach a wristband.

Committee

An additional image disclosed is a screenshot of text messages from an unidentified individual who states they have been sent "some girls" and are requesting "$1000 per female".

Photograph Release Occurs Prior to DOJ Due Date

The body has thousands of images in its possession from the Epstein holdings, which are "simultaneously graphic and mundane," its press release on Thursday noted.

The oversight panel first legally compelled the holdings of Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019 while pending legal proceedings on charges of sex trafficking crimes, in August.

The photographs and documents the Epstein property submitted to the panel are separate from what is largely called "Epstein-related records". Those are documents under the Department of Justice's possession related to its own probe into Epstein.

Under the recently passed law, which the President signed into law in November, the DOJ has until the date of 19 December to release its records. The scope of what's contained in the DOJ's records is unclear, and it's probable that much of the content will be heavily redacted, similar to the committee's materials