The newly released set from Epstein files include images featuring Bill Gates, Noam Chomsky, and former Trump aide Steve Bannon.
Congressional Democrats on Thursday released dozens of previously unseen photographs from the estate of late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including images featuring Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, political philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky, and former Trump aide Steve Bannon.
The release comes a day before the US Justice Department is legally required to make public unclassified files related to its investigation into the disgraced financier.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said the photographs were made public as part of an effort to provide greater transparency into Epstein’s activities and the network of associates linked to him.
More high-profile figures appear in photos
The newly released set also includes images featuring Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, political philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky, and former Trump aide Steve Bannon. Representatives for Gates, Chomsky and Bannon did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters news agency.
The 68 photographs are part of a much larger cache of around 95,000 images that Epstein’s estate handed over to the House Oversight Committee, according to the news agency.
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Democrats last week released 19 photos from the collection, some of which featured now-President Donald Trump, who dismissed those images as “no big deal.”
What the newly released images show
According to committee Democrats, the latest batch of photographs contains disturbing material, including close-up images of sentences from “Lolita” — a novel centred on a man’s obsession with a 12-year-old girl — scribbled in black ink across a woman’s body, including her chest, foot, neck and back.
Other images include redacted identification cards belonging to women from Russia, Morocco, Italy, the Czech Republic, South Africa, Ukraine and Lithuania. The release also features screenshots of a late-night text exchange discussing the sending of girls for someone identified only as “j,” with a price of $1,000 each mentioned in the messages.
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More material pending
Committee Democrats said the photographs released on Thursday “were selected to provide the public with transparency into a representative sample of the photos” and to “provide insights into Epstein’s network and his extremely disturbing activities.”
They added that thousands of additional images remain under review, describing them as “both graphic and mundane,” and said the analysis is ongoing.
Meanwhile, the White House pushed back against the significance of the latest disclosures. Spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the release does not alter the administration’s position.
“President Trump has been consistently calling for transparency related to the Epstein files and his administration has delivered,” she said in a statement.
The article originally appeared on Hindustan Times
