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 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 reach 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, and attorney Alan Dershowitz.
Notably, being in the photos is not evidence of wrongdoing; many pictured have stated they were never involved in Epstein's criminal acts.
Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee described the Epstein estate as having provided little context or timing 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 committee noted.
The release includes several pictures with quotes from the Vladimir Nabokov novel Lolita inscribed in black ink across various parts of a woman's body. One quote 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.
In addition, redacted images of female passports from various countries, including Lithuania, Russia, and Ukraine, were included, alongside a snapshot of Epstein surrounded by three unnamed women.
Another image features a screenshot of suspicious text messages involving the solicitation of girls for $1,000 each.
Photo release comes ahead of DOJ deadline
The committee has a significant volume of images from the Epstein estate, which include both graphic and mundane content.
Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Trump signed into law last month, the DOJ has until 19 December to release its documents. The exact contents of the DOJ's files remain unknown, but much is expected to be heavily redacted.
