Rep. Ro Khanna took to the House floor Tuesday and read aloud the names of six “wealthy, powerful men” whose names were originally redacted in the Jeffrey Epstein files.
It comes after Khanna (D-Calif.) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) emerged from reviewing unredacted materials related to the late convicted sex offender and demanded that the Justice Department reveal these individuals’ identities to the public if their redactions did not fall under the terms established by Congress..
The lawmakers threatened to expose the men if DOJ did not cooperate, taking advantage of the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause that under certain circumstances can shield members of Congress from litigation. DOJ ultimately complied with some of their requests, Massie announced in social media posts Tuesday morning.
Khanna, however, wasn’t satisfied to stop there.
“Why did it take Thomas Massie and me going to the Justice Department to get these six men’s identities to become public?” he asked from the House floor. “And if we found six men that they were hiding in two hours, imagine how many men they are covering up for in those 3 million files.”
Khanna accused the Trump administration of continuing to violate the law he and Massie helped shepherd through Congress in November that placed limits on DOJ redactions of the documents.
It’s not immediately clear who some of the individuals are, but Khanna identified Leslie Wexner as the billionaire former owner of Victoria’s Secret and other retail companies, and Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem as the chief executive officer of DP World.
“The Assistant U.S. Attorney told Mr. Wexner’s legal counsel in 2019 that Mr. Wexner was being viewed as source of information about Epstein and was not a target in any respect,” a legal representative for Wexner said in a statement. “Mr. Wexner cooperated fully by providing background information on Epstein and was never contacted again.”
A representative for bin Sulayem did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Other names include Salvatore Nuara, Zurab Mikeladze, Leonic Leonov, and Nicola Caputo, who could not be reached for comment.
Khanna did not provide evidence of wrongdoing against any of them.
