Congress Push On Epstein Files: Lawmakers Demand DOJ Publish Names Of Powerful Figures
The Justice Department unredacted additional names in the Jeffrey Epstein files after bipartisan lawmakers pressured the agency to release the identities of at least six men they described as “likely incriminated” in the documents. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) read the names of the men on the House floor Tuesday. They include: Emirati businessman Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, billionaire U.S. businessman Leslie Wexner, Salvatore Nuara, Zurab Mikeladze, Leonic Leonov, and Nicola Caputo.
After being granted access to unredacted DOJ documents for the first time Monday, Khanna and Reps Thomas Massie (R-KY) said that the names were withheld from public view without clear legal justification.
They threatened to preemptively share the names on the House floor if the DOJ didn’t. Massie on Monday evening released the information about Dubai Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, who appeared to email about a “torture video” with Epstein.
In response, the DOJ said it unredacted 16 of the 20 names and released more information from another document.
The developments come as new reporting from the Associated Press says the FBI, after a years-long investigation, found no evidence Epstein ran a coordinated sex-trafficking ring for powerful men. Investigators found overwhelming evidence that Epstein sexually abused young women and girls — but insufficient proof of a broader trafficking network or a formal “client list.” Khanna and Massie are among several members of Congress who are now questioning whether law enforcement engaged in a sufficient investigation based on looking at the documents.
MAKING HEADLINES: The Miami Herald reports that in July 2006, just as Epstein’s criminal sex charge became public, Trump called then-Palm Beach police chief Michael Reiter to tell him that “everyone has known he’s been doing this,” regarding Epstein’s sex crimes. He allegedly called Ghislaine Maxwell ‘evil.’ That’s according to a 2019 FBI interview with Reiter from the DOJ Epstein files. However, the FBI says it doesn’t have confirmation of Trump’s phone call — beyond Reiter’s testimony.
One of the men in the Epstein files faced heated questions on the Hill Tuesday. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick acknowledged that he visited Epstein’s private island for lunch years after previously saying he cut off contact with the convicted sex offender prior to Epstein's 2008 guilty plea. Lutnick insisted the newly-acknowledged 2012 interaction was brief and emphasized that his family and children were present.
In an interview last year, Lutnick insisted that after a 2005 encounter at Epstein’s home, he vowed to “never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again.”
PLEAD THE FIFTH
Epstein’s longtime accomplice, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, refused to answer questions before a closed-door House Oversight Committee deposition Monday. Maxwell invoked her Fifth Amendment right, citing efforts to overturn her conviction.
QUID PRO QUO? Maxwell’s attorneys say she is willing to testify — but only if President Trump grants her clemency. Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022. She appeared virtually from a minimum-security federal prison in Texas, where she was transferred over the summer after speaking with the Department of Justice.
Bipartisan lawmakers rejected supporting her request.
MORE TO COME
More depositions are expected. Former President Bill Clinton and former First Lady Hillary Clinton are set to sit for depositions later this month. Epstein’s accountant and lawyer, along with former retail mogul Les Wexner (one of the six men who was named today), were also subpoenaed by the House Committee.