There's a Small Problem With That List of Names a Dem Lawmaker Connected to Epstein
By Nick AramaCongressional lawmakers were given access to see the unredacted names in the Epstein files, and some have looked at the documents.
Shortly after that, Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna (CA-17) and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (KY-4) said they found the names of six men whose names had been redacted, whom Massie said were "likely incriminated by their inclusion in these files."
Khanna claimed they were “wealthy, powerful men that (sic) the DOJ hid," and then he read their names on the House floor for all to hear.
Except there was a small problem with this claim.
While two of the names had some connection to Epstein, four of the names I'd never heard of before, and I'd been covering the case for years. Then I went looking to find out who they were. The first thing I thought was: how wealthy and powerful can they be, if I can't even find much on these people?
But it turns out that those four did not have contact with Epstein, according to reporting from The Guardian. The men had just been used in a line-up in New York, which is why their names and some pictures were found in the files.
Now Khanna is trying to blame the DOJ for what he did. He acknowledged the reporting that the people "were just part of a photo line-up and are not connected to Epstein's crimes."
I wish DOJ had provided that explanation earlier instead of redacting then unredacting their names. They have failed to protect survivors, created confusion for innocent men, and have protected rich and powerful abusers.
But it wasn't the DOJ that went on the House floor and read their names. Khanna did that. Khanna claimed they were "wealthy and powerful," and he didn't even know that about the four.
This is the problem of reading random things in the files, without knowing the context. This is why you should operate based not on random emails or documents you don't fully understand, but on specific allegations.
Now imagine, too, the monumental job of going through all those millions of files, trying to figure them out and get everything correct. The DOJ has to determine the context, and what happened in any prior investigations as well.
In response to the news about the four men, Massie claimed that he'd mentioned the possibility of a line-up during a CNN interview. But even in that interview clip, it was still implied that the DOJ was somehow improperly protecting the men.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche scolded Khanna.
"The 'problem' is that you didn’t come to us, but immediately ran to X and the House floor and made false accusations about four men," Blanche said, "while we were checking the facts." He also said that while the two other men who had had contact with Epstein had been redacted in one document, they were otherwise mentioned unredacted in the files. So the association wasn't being hidden.
Bottom line? Let's look at the actual allegations, if any of those can still be pursued.
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