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Committee

The House investigative committee has released a batch of around 70 images secured from the holdings of deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This represents the third such release from a tranche of in excess of 95,000 photos the panel has obtained from Epstein's estate. It includes images of excerpts from the novel Lolita scrawled across a female's body, and censored pictures of female foreign passports.

This disclosure comes mere hours before the 19 December due date for the Justice Department to make public every files connected to its probe into Epstein.

"These new photographs raise additional questions about what exactly the Department of Justice has in its holdings," stated the Democratic lead of the panel, Robert Garcia.

Contents in the Photos Released

A number of the photographs made public on Thursday depict Epstein conversing with professor and activist Noam Chomsky on a private jet; Bill Gates seen beside a individual whose identity is redacted; Steve Bannon sitting at a workstation opposite Epstein, and previous Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a evening meal.

Investigative Body

These are the most recent affluent, influential men to be seen in Epstein estate photos disclosed 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 Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers, attorney Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and other figures.

Being pictured in the photos is is not considered proof of any misconduct, and a number of the pictured men have stated they were never implicated in Epstein's unlawful actions.

In a statement accompanying the photograph disclosure, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee stated the Epstein property holders did not offer background information or timeframes for the pictures.

"Images were chosen to offer the public with transparency into a typical cross-section of the photos received from the holdings, and to offer insights into Epstein's associates and his extremely disturbing activities," the announcement reads.

Oversight Panel

The release also features multiple photos of quotes from the Vladimir Nabokov novel Lolita inscribed in black ink across different parts of a female's body, like her upper body, lower extremity, hip, and back. Lolita recounts the tale of a adolescent who was exploited by a adult literature professor.

A particular excerpt from the novel inscribed across a female's upper body says, "Lolita: the tip 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 series of photographs of female identification and ID papers from countries worldwide, including Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Investigative Body

The majority of the data on the papers, including identities and dates of birth, is censored but the committee indicated in a statement that the passports are associated with "women whom Jeffrey Epstein and his associates were interacting with".

A further image features Epstein sitting at a desk closely in the company of three individuals whose features have been censored - one has her palm on Epstein's upper body under his clothing, and a second is bending to view a nearby device. Epstein can be seen to be helping the third attach a piece of jewelry.

Oversight Panel

A further photograph made public is a image of digital messages from an unidentified individual who claims they have been supplied "several females" and are asking for "$1000 for each individual".

Photo Publication Comes Before DOJ Deadline

The committee has thousands of images in its holdings from the Epstein property, which are "simultaneously graphic and mundane," its press release on recently explained.

The House Oversight Committee first subpoenaed the estate of Epstein, who was found dead in a New York correctional facility in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of human trafficking, in August.

The photos and records the Epstein estate gave to the panel are distinct from what is commonly called "the Epstein files". Those files are records under the DOJ's control associated with its separate inquiry into Epstein.

Under the Transparency Act, which President Trump enacted last month, the DOJ has until 19 December to disclose its files. The full nature of the contents contained in the DOJ's files is not publicly known, and it's likely that a significant portion of the material will be significantly censored, similar to the committee's documents