The House Oversight Committee has released a batch of around 70 photos from the estate of late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
It's the third such release from a tranche of over 95,000 photos the committee has acquired from Epstein's estate. It includes images of quotes from the book *Lolita* written across a woman's body, and redacted images of women's foreign passports.
It comes hours before the 19 December deadline for the Department of Justice to release all files related to its investigation into Epstein.
These new images raise more questions about what exactly the Department of Justice has in its possession, said ranking member of the committee, Robert Garcia.
What's in the images released
Some of the photos released recently show Epstein speaking with professor and activist Noam Chomsky aboard a private plane; Bill Gates standing beside a woman whose face is redacted; Steve Bannon sitting at a desk across from Epstein, and former Alphabet president Sergey Brin at a dinner event. The BBC has attempted to contact each for comment.
These are the latest wealthy, powerful men to be seen in Epstein estate photos released by the House Oversight Committee—previously released photos also show US President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton, as well as film director Woody Allen, former US treasury secretary Larry Summers, attorney Alan Dershowitz, former prince Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor, and others.
It’s important to note that appearing in the photos does not signify guilt, and many of the pictured men have claimed they had no involvement in Epstein’s illegal activities.
In a statement accompanying the photo release, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee explained that the Epstein estate did not provide context or timings for the pictures.
Photos were selected to provide the public with transparency into a representative sample of the photos received from the estate, and to provide insights into Epstein's network and his extremely disturbing activities, the statement reads.
The release also includes several photos of quotes from the Vladimir Nabokov novel *Lolita* written in black ink across different parts of a woman's body, like her chest, foot, hipbone, and back.
Among the disturbing quotes from *Lolita*, one reads, Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth.
Additionally, the images include female passports and identification documents from various countries, including Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine, with most details redacted.
The House Oversight Committee clarified that these passports belong to women whom Jeffrey Epstein and his conspirators were engaging.
Other photos depict Epstein in an intimate setting with three women, further raising alarm about his activities.
Another image released features a screenshot of texts indicating a discussion about some girls and money transactions for their engagement, deepening the investigation’s complexity.
Photo release comes ahead of DOJ deadline
The committee currently possesses thousands of images from Epstein's estate, labeled as both graphic and mundane. It first subpoenaed Epstein's estate, who died in a New York prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking allegations, in August.
The photos and files yielded by the Epstein estate are distinct from what is often referred to as the Epstein files, which are documents in the Department of Justice's custody concerning its investigation.
Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was signed into law by President Trump last month, the DOJ has until 19 December to disclose its files, although the extent of content is currently unknown and is expected to be heavily redacted.
