Lawmakers reviewed unredacted versions of several records in the Jeffrey Epstein files and pressured the Justice Department on Monday to un-redact more names.
From Monday onwards, members of Congress have been granted the opportunity to review the more than 3 million pages of documents that were recently made public by the Department of Justice under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. However, Rep. Jamie Raskin expressed concern about the extremely limited access to the documents, noting that members of Congress can review them on only four computers in a DOJ satellite office.
Rep. Raskin said that “it’s not explained yet why there might be certain redactions that have been made.
“So, I went over there, and I was able to determine, at least, I believe, that there were tons of completely unnecessary redactions in addition to the failure to redact the names of victims, and so that’s troubling to us,” Raskin said Monday, ABC reported.
“I saw the names of lots of people who were redacted for mysterious or baffling or inscrutable reasons,” he added.
On the same day, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, who co-authored the Epstein Files Transparency Act and have both reviewed the unredacted documents, expressed concern that some men’s names may have been accidentally redacted.
Currently, it is not known what the specific activities or connections these men may have had to the unredacted documents that the lawmakers were able to review.
Rep. Khanna read out the names of six people who had been previously redacted in the Epstein files during a floor speech on Tuesday, after visiting the Department of Justice where he and Rep. Thomas Massie spent two hours reviewing the documents.
The six men identified by Khanna, as reported by The Guardian, are Leslie Wexner, founder of Victoria’s Secret; Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, CEO of DP World; Nicola Caputo; Salvatore Nuara; Zurab Mikeladze; and Leonic Leonov.
Khanna also expressed concern that the DOJ may have over-redacted women’s names in the files, noting that some were hidden simply because they were female. “Just because, for example, someone is female doesn’t necessarily mean they’re survivors. And it seemed like they blanket redacted anyone who was a female from my review,” he said.
Now, Congresswoman Nancy Mace says she has her own list of people who have been found to be redacted, and she wants to know why.
“I took a lot of notes. I saw a lot of names,” she said during Katie Pavlich Tonight on Tuesday.
“I wanted to look at the documents of the people who have not been arrested or investigated. A lot of that information is still redacted.”
Mace said she has found the names of women who were potential co-conspirators of Epstein and may have been providing women to him.
She said they were “adult women who were recruiting young women and potentially underage individuals to give to Jeffrey Epstein,” adding: “Really disgusting behavior.
“These are people that I want to have brought in, tesitfy and answer some very tough questions.
“I’m very concerned as a survivor about protecting the personal information, the names of underage children of some of these women that was put out in the public,” Mace went on to explain. “And it’s also, it’s shaming. It’s victim shaming.”
Although she claims that not all people she recognized in the files had evidence against them of wrongdoing, there are allegations being raised about their association with Epstein.
“I saw some names in there, people that I had no idea would be in the files, who were scheduling lunch or meetings with a convicted pedophile. Didn’t do anything wrong, but certainly you question, ‘Wow, why are all these people, rich and powerful and famous, Hollywood, et cetera, doing this?’” she said.
In the end, both Rep. Ro Khanna and Rep. Nancy Mace are calling for greater transparency in the Epstein files. Together, their efforts underline the ongoing push for accountability and a clearer picture of Epstein’s network.
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