Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released 70 additional photos Thursday obtained from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein, part of their last-ditch pressure campaign to force the Justice Department to comply with a Friday deadline to release a massive trove of files related to the late convicted sex offender.
The photos are among the 95,000 images that have been selectively released by Democrats so far from materials obtained from the Epstein estate through a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee over the summer.
They also follow last week’s release of photos highlighting Epstein’s relationship with powerful men, including President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton, tech giant Bill Gates and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.
“Oversight Democrats will continue to release photographs and documents from the Epstein estate to provide transparency for the American people,” said the Oversight panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, in a statement. “As we approach the deadline for the Epstein Files Transparency Act, these 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.”
A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Two of the new photographs made public by Democrats Thursday depict Gates beside a woman whose face has been obscured to protect her identity. A spokesperson for Gates, whose relationship with Epstein has been previously documented, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
One photo shows a page of a woman’s passport and another is a screenshot of a series of text messages where an unknown sender says they have found “some girls” for “1000$ per girl … Maybe someone will be good for J?”
Trump has maintained he had a falling out with Epstein years ago. A spokesperson for Clinton has said the former president disassociated himself with Epstein before his 2019 arrest and had no knowledge of his crimes. Bannon has not publicly commented on the photos or his relationship with Epstein.
The GOP-led panel launched its own probe into Epstein over the summer as Republican leaders sought to thwart a vote on legislation compelling the Justice Department to release all the Epstein-related materials it can produce while also protecting victims and not running afoul of ongoing criminal investigations.
Republicans, with Trump’s blessing, eventually let this vote go through, starting the 30-day countdown clock for the DOJ to comply. But information requested by the Oversight panel is continuing to be delivered to Capitol Hill.
It remains to be seen, however, whether the DOJ release will quell calls for transparency and complaints about obfuscation. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) — who co-led the insurgent, bipartisan effort to force a floor vote on the bill requiring the release of the Epstein case materials — is already questioning whether House Republicans had cancelled votes on Friday because of the expected files’ publication.
House Oversight Democrats also noted that the estate did not provide context for the images and that the young women’s faces were redacted given a lack of certainty around whether they could be identified as victims of Epstein.
A spokesperson for Republicans on the House Oversight committee did not immediately return a request for comment.
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