Rep. Thomas Massie has openly criticized Donald Trump’s Justice Department and its handling of redactions in the Epstein files.
The Kentucky Republican, who helped lead the congressional effort to force the release of the files, was dissatisfied with how the latest dump has blocked out some identities of those who communicated with the sex offender, highlighting a number of examples on Monday night.
“This is well known retired CEO. DOJ should unredact this. Why did they redact it?” Massie, 55, wrote on X, linking to an unclassified FBI document that described a “co-conspirator” in Ohio and their “former girlfriend” of Belarus.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche responded by saying the Justice Department was being transparent.
“The document you cite has numerous victim names,” Blanche wrote. “We have just unredacted Les Wexner’s name from this document, but his name already appears in the files thousands of times. DOJ is hiding nothing.”
Wexner, a billionaire who featured on a list of “prominent names” of interest in the Epstein investigation, was also listed as a possible co-conspirator in a newly released FBI memo. However, it notes “there is limited evidence regarding his involvement.” Wexner has denied knowing about Epstein’s sex crimes.
Massie also took issue with a concerning April email exchange between Epstein and a person whose identity was redacted.
“Where are you? are you ok , I loved the torture video,” Epstein wrote on April 24. The next morning, the individual replied, “I am in china I will be in the US 2nd week of may.”
Massie wrote of the correspondence: “A Sultan seems to have sent this. DOJ should make this pubic.”
About that post, Blanche said Massie was “grandstanding.”
“You looked at the document. You know it’s an email address that was redacted. The law requires redactions for personally identifiable information, including if in an email address. And you know that the Sultan’s name is available unredacted in the files,” he wrote on X. “See EFTA00666117. Be honest, and stop grandstanding.”
Blanche continued his Epstein files defense in a third post directed at Massie, claiming DOJ had “just unredacted all non-victim names” from another document he presented.
Massie in turn responded to Blanche in a series of posts, naming the Sultan as Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, one of Dubai’s most powerful executives, according to Bloomberg. He and Epstein exchanged intimate emails for more than a decade, Bloomberg claims, citing the files. Neither bin Sulayem nor DP World–a Dubai-based logistics company of which he is chairman and chief executive officer–responded to “repeated” requests by Bloomberg for comment.
When reached for comment, the White House linked to Blanche’s posts.
Massie and California Rep. Ro Khanna, another early proponent of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, revealed what they had learned after having reviewed unredacted versions of the Justice Department’s files on Epstein earlier in the day.
The two lawmakers said they believed six men whose names were redacted were implicated in sex trafficking charges. One of the men, they said, is a high-ranking foreign official.
“There is no reason in our legislation that allows them to redact the names of those men,” Massie said.
Also on Monday, Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell refused to answer questions during a deposition before the House Oversight Committee. She pleaded the Fifth in response to each question.
The Justice Department, in addition to its slow release of the files well beyond the legal deadline, has been criticized for redacting names of those who communicated with Epstein while not redacting some of the identities of Epstein’s victims.
