Khanna reads names of 6 men ‘likely incriminated’ in Epstein files on House floor

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) shared the names of the six men he claimed were “likely incriminated” in the Epstein files on the House floor Tuesday.

Khanna’s comments come as the Justice Department has been under fire for how it has handled redactions in the documents, in some cases failing to conceal the names of victims while in other instances shielding the identities of those exchanging salacious emails with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Khanna and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who together co-sponsored the bill that mandated the public release of the files, both went Monday to review the unredacted version of the files now available to lawmakers at a Justice Department office.

The duo told reporters that in their two-hour review they saw six names they thought could face criminal culpability based on the content of the files, with Massie describing the group as being “likely incriminated.”

Khanna, after revealing the six names on the House floor, said, “Now my question is, why did it take Thomas Massie and me going to the Justice Department to get these six men’s identities to become public?”

“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.”

“Now my bill is clear. The Epstein Transparency Act requires them to unredact those FBI files,” Khanna continued.

He added that the Justice Department told him and Massie, “We just uploaded whatever the FBI sent us.”

Khanna claimed the FBI sent scrubbed files, saying that survivor statements naming powerful individuals were hidden and redacted.

“It’s a little bit of a farce,” he said.

Khanna’s decision to disclose the names comes after Massie had said he did not plan to publicly do so, arguing instead that the Justice Department should have a chance to “correct their mistake.”

“They need to themselves check their own homework,” Massie said Monday.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act only allows for narrow redactions in the files, largely to protect the identities of victims.

Khanna’s listing of the names on the House floor offers the lawmaker a degree of protection should any of the six men seek to file a defamation suit.

The Speech and Debate Clause of the Constitution protects members from being questioned for speech made within the course of their role as lawmakers, shielding them from criminal liability and civil suits.

Though he did not say so on the floor, Khanna noted Monday that inclusion in the Epstein files does not necessarily indicate guilt.

“None of this is designed to be a witch hunt,” Khanna said. “Just because someone may be in the files doesn’t mean that they’re guilty.”

He added that there were powerful individuals involved beyond Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday responded to Massie, accusing him of “grandstanding,” even as the Justice Department unredacted several new pages.

Massie had referenced three heavily redacted documents on the social platform X, including a list of 20 individuals, email correspondence from 2009, and an FBI memo compiled after Epstein’s death in 2019.

Following Massie’s criticism, the department unredacted 16 additional names on the 20-person list.

Two names remain redacted, and photos of individuals other than Epstein and Maxwell are still concealed.

“You looked at the document. You know it’s an email address that was redacted,” Blanche wrote on social media.

“The law requires redactions for personally identifiable information, including if in an email address,” he added.