Ro Khanna, the US congressman, publicly revealed the names of six men whose identities were redacted from the Jeffrey Epstein files, including Leslie Wexner, a billionaire retail magnate, whom the FBI appeared to have labeled as a co-conspirator.
The Democratic representative of California disclosed the names during a floor speech on Tuesday, following a visit to the Department of Justice, where he and Thomas Massie, a Republican congressman from Kentucky, spent two hours reviewing unredacted documents.
The six men named by Khanna are Wexner, the Victoria’s Secret founder; Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, CEO of DP World and an Emirati billionaire businessman; and four others identified as Nicola Caputo, Salvatore Nuara, Zurab Mikeladze and Leonic Leonov.
Khanna did not provide evidence of wrongdoing against any of them nor have they been charged with a crime in connection with Epstein.
“If we found six men that they were hiding in two hours, imagine how many men they are covering up for in those 3m files,” Khanna said during his floor speech.
Khanna said that when he and Massie identified the redactions for justice department officials, “they acknowledged their mistake” and revealed the identities. He said that the majority of the files remain redacted.
Epstein admitted guilt in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution and completed a 13-month sentence. He died in an apparent suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while facing trial on sex-trafficking charges.
Being named in the Epstein files does not establish guilt, as individuals may appear simply through email correspondence, contact information or other documentation referencing the disgraced sex offender financier.
Here are the six now unredacted names:
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Leslie ‘Les’ Wexner
The 88-year-old Wexner, who established a retail empire that includes Victoria’s Secret, Abercrombie & Fitch and Bath & Body Works, maintained a lengthy financial relationship with Epstein, who handled his investments for many years.
In a lengthy investigation from the New York Times in November, Wexner is attributed as the person who launched Epstein’s financial status from millionaire to plutocrat. Aside from the money, his “greatest value to Epstein was that he imbued him with new credibility and credentials”, the reporters wrote.
Though Wexner’s ties to Epstein were already publicly known and his name had surfaced in previous releases, it has now been revealed that he appears to have been labeled a co-conspirator with Epstein by the FBI, though he faces no criminal charges in connection with Epstein’s offenses.
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Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem
The Dubai-based businessman leads DP World, a multinational ports and logistics enterprise with operations spanning more than 80 countries. He’s also the brother of Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the head of the FIA, which governs the world’s motorsport championships, including Formula One.
Recently disclosed documents reveal that Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem emailed Epstein in 2015 that he met a girl “two years ago” that went to an American university in Dubai was “the best sex I ever had amazing body”.
“She got engaged but not she back with me,” he said.
Massie also said that since the names were unredacted, it appears the justice department confirmed that Sulayem was the recipient of an email from Epstein in which he said: “I loved the torture video.”
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Nicola Caputo
A man by the name of Nicola Caputo is an Italian politician who represented his country in the European parliament between 2014 and 2019 before taking a senior position in Campania’s regional administration, but no verified evidence confirms this individual is mentioned in the officially released documents, and established news organizations have not corroborated any link between him and the files.
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Salvatore Nuara
It is not yet known who this person is and how they are connected to Epstein.
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Zurab Mikeladze
It is not yet known who this person is and how they are connected to Epstein.
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Leonic Leonov
It is not yet known who this person is and how they are connected to Epstein.
