The U.S. Department of Justice unredacted portions of documents in the Jeffrey Epstein files with mentions of high profile figures at the request of Congressional leaders.
On Monday, U.S. Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., visited the Department of Justice to view several documents included in its 3 million page dump on Jan. 30.
DOJ officials allowed members of Congress to meet and discuss possible redaction errors.
“To this end, though, and to ensure transparency, if any member of Congress wishes to review any portions of the responsive production in any unredacted form, they’re welcome to make arrangements with the department to do so and we’re happy to do that,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said.
Massie and Khanna criticized the department for several key redactions and the omission of redactions for certain victims.
The redacted material included the names of prominent figures. Khanna and Massie identified billionaire Les Wexner, who previously employed Epstein as his financial adviser.
However, newly unredacted FBI documents list Wexner as a “co-conspirator” in the investigation of Epstein’s crimes.
The new redactions also list several other high profile men, including Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, a Dubai executive who corresponded with Epstein over email, according to Massie. He said the sultan sent a video of someone being tortured to Epstein.
Salvatore Nuara, Zurab Mikeladze, and Leonic Leonov are also mentioned alongside the Sultan in a separate list. Names of several other women were also unredacted from the list.
It is unclear what the association between the other individuals on the list are to Epstein. The names of two victims in the same document remain redacted. Being named in the files does not necessarily implicate an individual in a crime.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche cited the victims’ names in the document as the reason for extensive redactions. A partially unredacted version of the files is now available on the Justice Department’s website.
“We have just unredacted all non-victim names from this document,” Blanche wrote. “The DOJ is committed to transparency.”
“Imagine how many men they are covering up for in those three million files,” Rep. Khanna said on the House floor Tuesday.
Khanna called for greater accountability of individuals who are named in the Epstein files. He referenced numerous mentions of U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in the documents, as the Center Square previously reported.
“It’s time to begin with accountability for the Epstein class,” Khanna said. “Investigate them, prosecute them and let’s return to democratic accountability in the United States of America.”
