Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Thursday released new photos related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein in a push to pressure the Department of Justice into releasing all files related to him.
The committee released 70 new photos, a minuscule number compared to the 95,000 the Democrats have released so far. The new photos didn’t contain a smoking gun showcasing any unknown involvement — billionaire Bill Gates was pictured next to a woman with her face obscured, a screenshot of a text conversation with the sender obscured showed someone discussing selling the services of an 18-year-old girl from Russia, and a line from Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita written on someone’s foot were three of the images released.
Though the photos didn’t have any new revelations, the ranking member of the committee, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), suggested that they raised “more questions” about what the DOJ had.
“Oversight Democrats will continue to release photographs and documents from the Epstein estate to provide transparency for the American people,” he said 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.”
The pictures were released without context. The one appearing to refer explicitly to criminal activity comes from an unknown sender, speculated to be discussing sex trafficking.
“I don’t know try to send someone else. 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 messages read, going on to describe the girl.
The DOJ has a Friday deadline to release all documents related to Epstein, as per a bipartisan bill from Congress passed last month.
Within 30 days after President Donald Trump signed it last month, the bill held that the DOJ must make “publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Attorneys’ Offices, that relate to Jeffrey Epstein including all investigations, prosecutions, or custodial matters.”
The deadline is Friday, but the timeline could be complicated by provisions in the bill that allow some redactions, primarily information that “would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution, provided that such withholding is narrowly tailored and temporary,” and any material that “would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy” of victims or “depicts or contains child sexual abuse.”
For any information the DOJ wants to redact, it must outline its justification for doing so within 15 days of its public release.
Democrats have repeatedly claimed that Attorney General Pam Bondi will try to delay the files’ release.
ARE DEMOCRATS GETTING DESPERATE ABOUT EPSTEIN?
A July memo from the FBI and DOJ said the departments carried out an “exhaustive” search for all documents related to Epstein, conducting “digital searches of its databases, hard drives, and network drives as well as physical searches of squad areas, locked cabinets, desks, closets, and other areas where responsive material may have been stored.”
Altogether, the agencies concluded that they had over 300 gigabytes of material, including “ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography.” The memo further concluded that over 1,000 victims were involved.