Whoops: Four Names from Epstein Files Unredacted by Khanna, Massie Just Random Men in Police Lineup with Him

When Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California and renegade GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky had a media briefing earlier this week on Capitol Hill, they were unambiguous:

They’d seen names in the unredacted version of the Jeffrey Epstein documents that were clearly involved in untoward activity as they saw it.

“We found six men whose names have been redacted who are implicated in the way the files are presented,” Massie said after the two viewed the documents at the Department of Justice.

Khanna read them aloud on the House floor after viewing the documents, entering the six names into the Congressional Record and unredacting them thanks to the broad protections offered by the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution.

“Why did it take Thomas Massie and me going to the Justice Department to get these six men’s identities to become public?” Khanna asked during his remarks on the House floor, according to Politico. “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.”

As it turns out, according to the Justice Department, four of the men were just randomly pulled in by police to appear in a photo lineup with Epstein. Whoops.

And, according to Khanna, that’s the DOJ’s fault; the California Democrat is offering up the political version of the “why did your face get in the way of my fist?” excuse to explain why he made an unforced error.

Massie is looking even more sloppy, implying but not explicitly stating that he doesn’t seem to have checked the date of birth of one of the innocent men against the date of birth of a member of the European Parliament from Italy, which seems to negate his claim that one of the individuals was “pretty high up” in a foreign government.

As the U.K. Guardian noted, only two of the six names had any real incriminating ties with Epstein, and only one was an especially new name: Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, an Emirati billionaire, who resigned as CEO of UAE-based logistics company DP World after he was named in connection with Epstein.

The other, retail billionaire Leslie Wexner, has long faced questions about his ties with Epstein, given that he seems to be how Epstein made most of his money and got his entrée into elite society. He was never charged with a crime, although one would assume his name appeared, redacted, somewhere in the documents, and likely in more than one somewhere.

The other names were Salvatore Nuara, Zurab Mikeladze, Leonic Leonov, and Nicola Caputo.

And they have nothing to do with the Epstein affair.

As the Guardian reported: “A spokesperson from the office of Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, told the Guardian the file was a photo lineup used for investigative purposes by the [Southern District of New York].”

“Rep Ro Khanna and Rep Thomas Massie forced the unmasking of completely random people selected years ago for an FBI lineup – men and women. These individuals have NOTHING to do with Epstein or Maxwell,” the representative said in a statement.

Yeah, how ’bout that? It’s almost like reading redacted names on the House floor was profoundly irresponsible! But that’s the DOJ’s fault, according to Khanna:

I appreciate @JSweetLI’s reporting confirming today that Salvatore Nuara, Zurab Mikeladze, Leonid Leonov, and Nicola Caputo 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…

— Rep. Ro Khanna (@RepRoKhanna) February 13, 2026

Yeah, sorry your good names were in the way of my photo op, Messrs. Nuara, Mikeladze, Leonov, and Caputo!

It’s also worth noting that unless you want to count Sulayem’s family’s political connections — he himself is in the private sector — none of these individuals were “pretty high up” in foreign powers. Massie himself seems to have indicated that he may have gotten it mixed up:

“I have good reason to believe the Nicola Caputo in EFTA00077895 is NOT the same Nicola Caputo who served as a Member of European Parliament from Italy,” Massie said.

“The redacted year of birth for the man in the Epstein files indicates he is more than ten years older than the former MEP.”

Inevitably, people who are not in the Epstein files will names with people who are in the Epstein files.

I have good reason to believe the Nicola Caputo in EFTA00077895 is NOT the same Nicola Caputo who served as a Member of European Parliament from Italy.

The redacted…

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) February 12, 2026

Nuarte told the Guardian he called Khanna’s office after the names were mentioned.

“I don’t know if they know what they are doing over there at the Justice Department,” he said. “But how can I clear my name?”

You can’t, really — not any more. It’s out in the public domain as being “implicated in the way the files are presented,” as per an attention-hungry congressman. He wasn’t going to let the facts get in his way.

For a self-proclaimed libertarian, Massie is apparently plenty happy to sic the dogs of government on some poor sap from Queens, New York, just because he was in a police lineup with Epstein.

Thomas Massie: “We found six men whose names have been redacted who are implicated in the way the files are presented.”

Four of them were totally random people selected years ago for an FBI lineup with no connection to Epstein’s crimes. https://t.co/upSpLpYR96 pic.twitter.com/dLESyzfaLv

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 13, 2026

Remember, this is on Congress — mostly its Democratic members, but with the odd Republican like Massie thrown in.

They pushed this document dump through, pushed the DOJ to get these documents out the door by an unrealistic date, pushed for fewer redactions, and were shocked — shocked! — that innocent people somehow got tarred and feathered. So naturally, who’s to blame for all this? Donald Trump’s DOJ. Not them. They just want to get at the truth.

And when the truth is that they just exposed totally innocent people to death threats and conspiracy theories … well, sorry about that, but it’s not their fault. They’ll hog all of the spotlight they can while taking none of the blame that should accompany it.

Even by the low standards of Washington, D.C., this is particularly disgusting.

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