US House Democrats released several dozen more photos Thursday from the estate of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, showing his associations with the rich and famous, as the Department of Justice faces a deadline to release many of its case files on the late financier by the end of the week.
The 68 images, shared without added context, are part of a much larger cache that Congress obtained from Epstein's estate and has been drip-feeding to the public in recent days, stoking political drama in Washington.
The photos released Thursday were among more than 95,000 that the House Oversight Committee has received after issuing a subpoena for the photos that Epstein had in his possession before he died in a New York jail cell in 2019.
Congress has also passed, and President Donald Trump has signed, a law requiring the Justice Department to release its case files on Epstein, and his longtime girlfriend and confidante Ghislaine Maxwell, by Friday. Anticipation about what those files will show is running high after they have been the subject of conspiracy theories and speculation about his friendships with Trump, former President Bill Clinton, the former Prince Andrew, and others.
Photographs include two images showing public intellectual Noam Chomsky seated with Epstein on what appears to be an aircraft, and pictures of Bill Gates posing beside a woman whose face is blurred.
The cache also includes images of filmmaker Woody Allen and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, both of whom featured in an earlier photo release.
House Democrats have already released dozens of photos from Epstein's estate showing Trump, Clinton and Andrew, who lost his royal title and privileges this year amid scrutiny of his relationship with the wealthy financier. The photos released Thursday showed Epstein cooking with Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, an Emirati businessman. The photos also include the Bill Gates and images of a 2011 dinner of notable people and wealthy philanthropists hosted by a nonprofit group. The committee made no accusations of wrongdoing by the men in the photos.
There were also images of passports, visas and identification cards from Russia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, South Africa and Lithuania with personally identifying information redacted, as well as photos of Epstein with women or girls whose faces were blacked out. The committee has said it is redacting information from the photos that may lead to the identity of victims being revealed.
Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the oversight panel, said in a statement that the "new images raise more questions about what exactly the Department of Justice has in its possession. We must end this White House cover-up, and the DOJ must release the Epstein files now.”
But one screenshot shows a snippet of a text exchange in which an unknown sender appears to discuss recruiting young women.
"I have a friend scout she sent me some girls today. But she asks 1000$ per girl. I will send u girls now. Maybe someone will be good for J?" the post says.
The screenshot includes a partially redacted physical description and the line "18 y old," but provides no names or clear indication of who is speaking.
A separate image shows a woman's foot bearing a handwritten quote from Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita," a novel about a man's sexual obsession with a child, another detail released without explanation.
Democrats say they are publishing material as it arrives while redacting identifying information for victims and anyone who could be a victim. Republicans, who control the Oversight Committee that is tasked with ensuring government transparency and accountability, have accused Democrats of "cherry-picking" to shape a narrative.
The Justice Department (DOJ) has remained silent on whether it will meet Friday's deadline, set by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, passed last month with bipartisan support.
The law requires the DOJ to publish the most comprehensive set of Epstein-related materials yet, while safeguarding victims' identities.
Epstein, a convicted sex offender with ties to global elites, died in his New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. His death, ruled a suicide, fueled conspiracy theories and demands for accountability.
(With inputs from AFP and Associated Press)