(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., are under fire for exposing the identities of individuals named in the DOJ’s release of files pertaining to deceased sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, despite having no ties to the late convicted sex offender.
The men appeared in a photo lineup alongside Epstein as part of prosecutors’ efforts to have potential victims identify him.
Two of the men reportedly had no ties to Epstein. Some acknowledged prior arrests, which may explain why their photos appeared in the lineup.
The DOJ said their identities were concealed due to the limited and procedural nature of their inclusion in the files.
Despite this, Khanna read the men’s names from a list on Friday, claiming they were “wealthy, powerful men that the DOJ hid” in the Epstein files “for no apparent reason.”
Of those included in the lineup list were 4 of the 6 men that Mr. Massie and Mr. Khanna referenced repeatedly and were only included in that one document out of all the files. The other two men – Les Wexner and Sultan bin Sulayem- were unredacted in the one document, and are…
— Todd Blanche (@DAGToddBlanche) February 13, 2026
Khanna obtained the names after he and Massie pushed the DOJ to unseal their identities.
After Khanna read the names on the House floor, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote on X that two lawmakers “forced the unmasking of completely random people selected years ago for an FBI lineup—men and women.”
He added, “These individuals have NOTHING to do with Epstein or Maxwell.”
Blanche stated that of the six individuals identified by Khanna, only two appeared elsewhere in the Epstein files.
“The other two men – Les Wexner and Sultan [Ahmed] bin Sulayem- were unredacted in the one document, and are referenced in the files nearly two hundred times and over 4,700 times respectively,” Blanche continued.
In response, Massie said he had previously noted that the four men may have appeared in a lineup.
“Maybe you should have checked with your folks first, or provided some context, instead of trying to beat my TV appearance and then blaming us,” Massie wrote on X.
Khanna echoed those claims, accusing the DOJ of failing to “to provide any explanation for their arbitrary redactions in violation of the law” and then unredacting “them without explaining the context that Massie and I had asked for.”
