Another trove of new photos obtained from Jeffrey Epstein's estate stunned the internet on Thursday.
House Oversight Democrats released more than four dozen new photos of the late sex offender and his associates, including Bill Gates, Noam Chomsky and New York Times columnist David Brooks, along with cryptic close-up shots of a female body and photos of various documents.
The revelation forced The Times to issue a statement explaining why one of the newspaper's columnists appeared in the images.
"As a journalist, David Brooks regularly attends events to speak with noted and important business leaders to inform his columns, which is exactly what happened at this 2011 event," the Times said in a statement to Semafor. "Mr. Brooks had no contact with him before or after this single attendance at a widely-attended dinner."
But social media reaction poured in after the news.
"Well......at least journalists were smart enough to stay away......uh.....ooooffff!" Science writer Marcus Daniel wrote on Bluesky.
"A month ago, NYT columnist David Brooks wrote a column decrying the media and political fixation on the Epstein story. This afternoon, House Democrats released a new tranche of photos of an event that Brooks attended with Epstein," Semafor media editor Maxi Tani wrote on X.
"Absolutely disgusting," user Maile wrote on X.
"Absolutely chilling. These photos aren’t old gossip they’re evidence of a system that still protects powerful men while the only one in prison is a woman an awful woman, but not the only guilty one. These girls were not props or mistakes; they were victims, time for justice," user Peter Dallison wrote on X.
"Oh my god," user Nicole wrote on Bluesky, responding to a photo of Gates posed with a woman whose face was blacked out in the image.