In a move to increase public transparency, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee have published a new collection of photographs from the estate of the late convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. The release comes just 48 hours before a critical legal deadline for the Department of Justice to disclose its own trove of documents related to the financier's case.
Undated Images and Literary References
The set of images, made public on 18 December 2025, is presented without dates, captions, or explanatory context. Among the most striking photographs are those showing passages from Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel, Lolita, inscribed on a woman's body.
One image displays the famous opening line, "Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth," written across a woman's chest. Other photos show the lines "She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning" on a foot, "She was Lola in slacks" on her body, and "she was Dolores on the dotted line" along her spine.
High-Profile Figures Featured
The batch also includes photographs featuring prominent individuals whose past associations with Epstein have been previously documented. One image shows billionaire Bill Gates posing with a woman whose face has been redacted. Gates has publicly stated that meeting Epstein was a "huge mistake."
Another photograph captures linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky seated on an aeroplane alongside Epstein. Further images depict director Woody Allen, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, and New York Times columnist David Brooks.
In a statement to the Guardian regarding Brooks' appearance, a spokesperson for the newspaper clarified that the columnist attended a single, widely-attended dinner in 2011 as part of his journalistic work and had no further contact with Epstein.
The committee emphasised that the mere presence of individuals in these photographs does not constitute evidence of any wrongdoing.
Documents and a Looming Deadline
Beyond the photographs, the release includes images of several foreign passports with redacted details, Epstein's own US passport, and a screenshot of a text message conversation. The texts, from an unknown sender, refer to an "18-year-old from Russia" and mention prices, alongside the query, "Maybe someone will be good for J?"
This disclosure is strategically timed ahead of the 19 December deadline imposed by the Epstein Files Transparency Act. This legislation, signed into law last month, mandates the Department of Justice to release its files concerning Epstein.
Representative Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the oversight committee, stated: "Oversight Democrats will continue to release photographs and documents from the Epstein estate to provide transparency for the American people." He added that the new images "raise more questions about what exactly the Department of Justice has in its possession," and called for an end to what he termed a "White House cover-up."
