2 US lawmakers flag 6 'likely incriminated' names redacted in Epstein files

Two US lawmakers said Monday that they found at least six names redacted from Justice Department files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein despite indications that the individuals may be implicated in criminal wrongdoing.

Reps. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, and Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, made the comments after reviewing the files at the Justice Department following a law requiring their release.

Massie said he had spotted the names of "at least six men that have been redacted that are likely incriminated by their inclusion in these files."

"We went in there for two hours. There's millions of files, right? And in a couple of hours, we found six men whose names have been redacted who are implicated in the way that the files are presented," Massie told reporters.

The lawmakers declined to name the individuals but said one appeared to be a senior official in a foreign government while others were prominent figures. They said the redactions raise concerns because a law they spearheaded last year requiring the documents' release permits only narrow exemptions, such as protecting survivors or classified material.

"None of this is designed to be a witch hunt. Just because someone may be in the files doesn't mean that they're guilty," Khanna said. "But there are very powerful people who raped these underage girls. It wasn't just Epstein and (Ghislaine) Maxwell."

Massie said he would not release the names himself, instead urging the Justice Department to review the redactions and correct any errors that may have been made.

"I think we need to give the DOJ a chance to go back through and correct their mistakes," he said. "They need to themselves check their own homework."

The lawmakers said some files were already redacted before reaching Justice Department attorneys, including FBI interview forms and grand jury materials that the law requires to be produced unredacted.

"The documents produced to justice from the FBI, from the grand jury, was redacted when they got it," Khanna said, adding that career prosecutors may not have had access to the full records.

Both lawmakers said they would continue pressing for fuller disclosure, stressing their focus was accountability rather than political gain.