Congressional Democrats Disclose Latest Set of Jeffrey Epstein Images as Justice Department Cut-off Date Nears
Investigative Body
The Congressional oversight panel has released a batch of approximately 70 photos from the estate of late found guilty sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
This constitutes the third release from a larger collection of over 95,000 photographs the body has acquired from Epstein's property. It includes photographs of quotes from the literary work Lolita written across a woman's body, and redacted photos of women's foreign passports.
This disclosure arrives hours before the December 19th deadline for the Justice Department to disclose every files related to its investigation into Epstein.
"These latest photographs bring up additional inquiries about what exactly the DOJ has in its holdings," said the Democratic lead of the committee, Robert Garcia.
What is in the Photographs Made Public
Some of the photos published on recently show Epstein speaking with scholar and advocate Noam Chomsky aboard a private plane; Bill Gates positioned alongside a woman whose face is censored; Steve Bannon seated at a table opposite Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner gathering.
Oversight Panel
These are the most recent affluent, influential figures to be seen in Epstein property images published by the committee - earlier disclosed photos also include US President Donald Trump and ex-president Bill Clinton, as well as movie director Woody Allen, ex- US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, attorney Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and other figures.
Appearing in the photographs is is not considered indication of any wrongdoing, and several of the featured figures have stated they were never participating in Epstein's unlawful actions.
In a press release released with the photo disclosure, Democratic members on the US House Oversight Committee noted the Epstein property holders did not provide background information or dates for the pictures.
"Images were selected to furnish the American people with transparency into a illustrative selection of the photos obtained from the holdings, and to offer perspectives into Epstein's associates and his profoundly disturbing actions," the announcement reads.
Investigative Body
The release also contains a number of photos of passages from the Vladimir Nabokov literary work Lolita inscribed in ink across various areas of a woman's body, like her chest, feet, hip, and spine. Lolita tells the story of a adolescent who was groomed by a adult literature professor.
A particular excerpt from the book inscribed across a woman's chest reads, "Lolita's name: the point of the tongue making a journey of three steps down the mouth to tap, at three, on the teeth".
Additionally, there are a number of images of women's passports and official papers from countries globally, including Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.
Investigative Body
A large portion of the information on the IDs, such as identities and dates of birth, is censored but the House Oversight Committee said in a statement that the passports belong to "individuals whom Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators were involved with".
An additional photograph depicts Epstein seated at a table intimately flanked by three female figures whose faces have been obscured - one individual has her hand on Epstein's chest under his shirt, and another individual is leaning to look at a adjacent laptop. Epstein can be seen to be aiding the final person fasten a piece of jewelry.
Committee
An additional photograph disclosed is a image of text messages from an unknown sender who states they have been provided "some girls" and are demanding "$$1,000 per girl".
Photo Publication Occurs Prior to DOJ Due Date
The body has thousands of photos in its custody from the Epstein estate, which are "at once disturbing and mundane," its statement on Thursday noted.
The House Oversight Committee first legally compelled the estate of Epstein, who passed away in a New York prison in 2019 while pending legal proceedings on allegations of sex trafficking crimes, in August.
The photographs and records the Epstein estate provided to the panel are different than what is largely termed "the Epstein documents". Those are papers under the DOJ's control related to its independent inquiry into Epstein.
Pursuant to the recently passed law, which Donald Trump made law last month, the DOJ has until 19 December to publish its documents. The scope of what is found in the DOJ's records is unknown, and it's expected that much of the information will be significantly censored, akin to Congressional releases