The Justice Department has been accused of improperly redacting the identities of the sex offender’s potential associates
A Democratic lawmaker publicly identified six men whose names were redacted from government documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, adding pressure on the Justice Department over transparency in the release of the files.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) read the names aloud on the House floor Tuesday after he and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) reviewed unredacted versions of the files at a Justice Department office earlier this week.
The six men named by Khanna are billionaire retail magnate Leslie “Les” Wexner; Emirati businessman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, the CEO of DP World; and four others identified as Nicola Caputo, Salvatore Nuara, Zurab Mikeladze and Leonic Leonov.
None of the men have been charged with crimes in connection with Epstein, and Khanna acknowledged that inclusion in the files does not itself establish guilt, despite insisting that the context of the records “likely incriminated” them.
The decision to reveal the names on the House floor gives Khanna constitutional protection under the Speech and Debate Clause, which shields lawmakers from potential defamation lawsuits.
Khanna and Massie are co-sponsors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which mandated the public release of the documents with only narrow redactions to protect victims. Khanna accused the Justice Department and the FBI of improperly redacting the identities of potential associates while, in some cases, failing to adequately protect the identities of Epstein’s victims.
“Why did it take Thomas Massie and me going to the Justice Department to get these six men’s identities to become public?” Khanna said during his floor speech. “If we found six men that they were hiding in two hours, imagine how many men they are covering up for in those three million files.”
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche pushed back against the lawmakers’ claims, accusing them of “grandstanding.” Blanche said some redactions were required to protect personally identifiable information, including email addresses, and insisted the Justice Department was “hiding nothing.” Following the criticism, the department unredacted several additional pages.
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution and died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. His longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, was later convicted of aiding his abuse of underage girls. The Justice Department has not announced any new criminal investigations related to the newly unredacted names.