Republican lawmaker, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, also jumped on the bandwagon to unmask the men. “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 said.
“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,” a spokesperson for Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said, ripping the pair for their blunder.
One of the men unmasked by the politicians is Salvatore Nuarte of Queens, New York. He didn’t even know his good name had been dragged through the mud until the Guardian informed him. He then reached out to Khanna’s office and received an email back — blaming the DoJ for the mishap.
“I don’t know if they know what they are doing over there at the justice department,” Nuarte fumed to the newspaper. “How can I clear my name?”
Another man who was named by the pols is IT manager Leonid Leonov, whose name was misspelled in the files as “Leonic.” Leonov was equally hopping mad about the situation.
“I don’t even have a second or third degree connection to him. Never worked for him, nothing,” he told the Guardian.
Both men acknowledged past NYPD arrests for unrelated matters.
Two of Khanna’s six names do check out. Emirati billionaire Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, who appears in the files a jaw-dropping 4,700 times per the DoJ has already paid the price, resigning as CEO of logistics giant DP World after Epstein was revealed to have written that he “loved the torture video” in an email to the tycoon.
Retail mogul Leslie Wexner, referenced nearly 200 times in the files per the DoJ, has maintained his lawyers told him back in 2019 that he was viewed only as a source of information — not a target.
“The assistant US attorney told Mr Wexner’s legal counsel in 2019 that Mr Wexner was being viewed as source of information about Epstein and was not a target in any respect. Mr Wexner cooperated fully by providing background information on Epstein and was never contacted again,” a legal rep told the outlet.
After being called out on the major mistake, Khanna blamed the DoJ again in an X post.
“I wish DOJ had provided that explanation earlier instead of redacting then unredacting their names. They have failed to protect survivors, created confusion for innocent men, and have protected rich and powerful abusers,” the lawmaker wrote.
