🔗 Share this article

Investigative Body

The Congressional oversight panel has published a collection of approximately 70 photographs from the estate of former convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This marks the third such disclosure from a larger collection of over 95,000 photographs the panel has obtained from Epstein's holdings. It includes images of quotes from the novel Lolita inscribed across a female's body, and redacted photos of female international passports.

This action occurs just hours before the 19 December deadline for the DOJ to make public every files connected to its probe into Epstein.

"These photographs raise further inquiries about what exactly the Department of Justice has in its possession," stated the senior Democrat of the committee, Robert Garcia.

Contents in the Images Disclosed

A number of the images published on this week feature Epstein in discussion with academic and activist Noam Chomsky aboard a private plane; Bill Gates seen alongside a woman whose face is redacted; Steve Bannon sitting at a table facing Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.

Investigative Body

These are the newest affluent, powerful men to be photographed in Epstein's estate photos released by the oversight panel - formerly published photos also show US President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton, as well as film director Woody Allen, former US Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and others.

Being pictured in the images is is not considered proof of any misconduct, and several of the pictured figures have asserted they were not involved in Epstein's unlawful actions.

In a announcement issued alongside the image release, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee stated the Epstein property holders did not offer background information or timeframes for the photographs.

"Photographs were picked to furnish the public with clarity into a representative sample of the photographs received from the estate, and to give perspectives into Epstein's associates and his profoundly disturbing activities," the release reads.

Investigative Body

The disclosure also contains a number of photographs of passages from the Vladimir Nabokov novel Lolita inscribed in ink across various areas of a woman's body, including her chest, feet, pelvis, and back. Lolita tells the tale of a minor who was exploited by a older literature professor.

A particular quote from the book written across a woman's upper body says, "Lolita's name: 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 series of photos of female identification and ID papers from nations around the world, including Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Investigative Body

The majority of the data on the papers, including names and DOBs, is censored but the panel said in a announcement that the travel documents belong to "women whom Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators were engaging".

Another photo shows Epstein positioned at a table closely flanked by three female figures whose features have been censored - a first has her palm on Epstein's chest under his clothing, and another is crouching to view a adjacent device. Epstein can be seen to be aiding the final person attach a piece of jewelry.

Committee

Another photo made public is a screenshot of text messages from an unidentified person who states they have been sent "a number of girls" and are requesting "$1000 per female".

Photograph Publication Comes Prior to DOJ Cut-off

The panel has many thousands of photographs in its possession from the Epstein holdings, which are "both graphic and ordinary," its statement on this week clarified.

The oversight panel first issued a subpoena to the property of Epstein, who was found dead in a New York jail in 2019 while facing trial on allegations of sex trafficking, in August.

The photographs and files the Epstein property provided to the body are separate from what is commonly termed "the Epstein documents". That material are records under the Department of Justice's custody associated with its separate investigation into Epstein.

In accordance with the Transparency Act, which President Trump signed into law in November, the DOJ has a deadline of 19 December to publish its documents. The extent of what is contained in the DOJ's files is unknown, and it's likely that much of the content will be extensively redacted, comparable to the committee's materials