The Justice Department on Monday un-redacted more names in the Jeffrey Epstein files after pressure from lawmakers who reviewed unredacted variations of a number of information.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, in an interview with NCS’s Kaitlan Collins, mentioned the Justice Department had beforehand redacted the identities of a number of individuals named in a 2019 FBI document.
The newly unredacted names embody billionaire enterprise magnate Les Wexner; Epstein’s longtime assistant Lesley Groff; and former French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel; every of whom are listed in the doc as co-conspirators of Epstein’s.
NCS has reached out to Wexner’s basis for remark.
Wexner is the previous CEO of Victoria’s Secret dad or mum firm L Brands and beforehand employed Epstein as a cash supervisor. He has mentioned he severed ties with Epstein in 2007.
“The Assistant U.S. Attorney in charge of the Epstein investigation stated at the time that Mr. Wexner was neither a co-conspirator nor target in any respect,” a authorized consultant for Wexner mentioned in a statement given to media retailers in December when Wexner’s identify appeared in Epstein paperwork launched by the DOJ. “Mr. Wexner cooperated fully by providing background information on Epstein and was never contacted again.”
An lawyer for Groff, Michael Bachner, mentioned in an announcement to NCS that Groff had “never seen this document and was unaware of it.”
“In fact, neither Lesley nor her counsel were ever notified that she was considered a co-conspirator. On the contrary, after Lesley voluntarily spoke with prosecutors, and answered each and every question asked of her, she was told that she was not being prosecuted,” he wrote.
Brunel, in the meantime, was arrested on prices together with raping a minor and was found dead in his prison cell in 2022. A health worker dominated his loss of life was suicide by hanging. He had denied any wrongdoing, and his attorneys mentioned on the time that his loss of life was not as a result of guilt however fairly a “sense of injustice.”
In a 2019 be aware to L Brands workers, Wexner disavowed Epstein and denied data of any criminality.
In a web-based exchange with Massie on Monday night time, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche mentioned that whereas the Justice Department had “unredacted Les Wexner’s name from this document,” he was already talked about in the Epstein paperwork “thousands of times.”
“DOJ is hiding nothing,” Blanche wrote.
The Justice Department on Monday revealed one other identify after pressure from Massie and the opposite lawmakers who reviewed a few of the unredacted materials earlier in the day.
In 2009, Epstein wrote a short e-mail to a redacted recipient, “where are you? are you ok I loved the torture video.”
Massie mentioned on social media that the e-mail recipient was a sultan. Blanche later wrote in an X post to the congressman that the identify was unredacted in a separate file and linked to an e-mail from Sultan Bin Sulayem, an Emirati businessman. Bin Sulayem was later additionally named by lawmakers on the House flooring. NCS has reached out to DP World, the place he’s CEO, for remark.
It is unclear what “torture video” Epstein is referring to in the e-mail Blanche linked to.
The Justice Department additionally revealed a number of different names listed in a closely redacted doc that lawmakers, together with Massie, mentioned had been being protected in the files.
“What I saw that bothered me were the names of at least six men that have been redacted that are likely incriminated by their inclusion in these files,” Massie mentioned on Monday, including that “it took some digging to find them.”
On Tuesday, California Rep. Ro Khanna, who with Massie sponsored the invoice to compel the discharge of the files, named the six males on the House flooring, saying that he had pressured DOJ’s hand to reveal the names.
The Justice Department has not defined why redactions have been made in such a confused and inconsistent approach, nor have they addressed why different people past Epstein had been by no means charged, besides to say there was no proof that may permit them to prosecute anybody else.
But a supply aware of the method advised NCS that lots of the emails which can be absolutely redacted are feminine victims turned co-conspirators or they had been e-mail addresses with no identify, so the DOJ needed to redact per a privateness regulation. Some of the FBI files had been additionally already redacted.
In a listening to earlier than Congress final yr, FBI Director Kash Patel mentioned there was no credible data that confirmed Epstein trafficked women to others.
“If there were, I would bring the case yesterday — that he trafficked to other individuals,” Patel mentioned on the time. “And the information we have, again, is limited.”
A draft indictment that was by no means introduced in opposition to Epstein however was launched by the DOJ final week alleged that from 2001 to 2005, Epstein and three unnamed defendants engaged in a conspiracy to “procure females under the age of 18” to have interaction “in lewd conduct” for cash “to satisfy Jeffrey Epstein’s prurient interests.” The identities of the unnamed defendants will not be recognized publicly.
Instead of bringing the indictment — which included scores of prices — in opposition to Epstein and the three unnamed people, federal prosecutors in 2007 reached a non-prosecution settlement with Epstein, who prevented federal prices and served 13 months in state jail on prostitution prices.
In a 2020 review, the Justice Department discovered that former US lawyer for the Southern District of Florida Alex Acosta had used “poor judgement” in the deal however didn’t discover that Acosta had engaged in skilled misconduct.
NCS’s Paula Reid, Kaanita Iyer and Aileen Graef contributed to this report.