Photos of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Google co-founder Sergey Brin were included among disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's files.
Democrat lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee released dozens of new, undated images from Epstein's estate a day before the congressionally mandated Friday deadline for the Justice Department to publish his federal records.
While the images underscored the breadth of Epstein's contacts across politics, entertainment, tech, and big business, the Financial Times noted there was no suggestion that the public figures pictured in the newly released photos committed wrongdoing.
The Dems' tranche includes photos of Gates and Brin, along with New York Times columnist David Brooks.
Also pictured were public intellectual Noam Chomsky, filmmaker Woody Allen, and President Donald Trump's former top strategist Steve Bannon.
Democrats framed the release as a push for "transparency" into what they called a "representative sample" of the 95,000 pictures lawmakers say they received from the Epstein estate.
Epstein died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges after years of public outrage over how he avoided serious federal consequences earlier in his criminal saga.
The Dems' photos were released amid heightened scrutiny of the Justice Department's handling of Epstein-related materials.
The DOJ on Friday unveiled a trove of records related to Epstein, marking the first documents released under a law signed by Trump last month.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act compelled the release of federal files, with carve-outs for material that could jeopardize active investigations or raise national security concerns.
The Associated Press reported Saturday that at least 16 files vanished from the Justice Department's public webpage less than a day after being posted, without explanation or public notice.
The missing items included an image that showed, inside a drawer among other photos, a photograph of Trump alongside Epstein, Melania Trump, and Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, AP said.
The unexplained removals fueled online speculation and intensified demands for clarity about what was posted, what was pulled, and why.
AP also reported that early document dumps offered limited new insight, with key material still missing — including FBI interviews with survivors and internal Justice Department memos on charging decisions.
The DOJ has said it will release records on a rolling basis due to redaction work.
In the meantime, the appearance of Gates and Brin in Epstein's photo files is likely to intensify public pressure on elite institutions, from Big Tech to legacy media, to answer questions about the late financier's history.
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