The Justice Department has released the names of three people the FBI once called co-conspirators of Jeffrey Epstein after lawmakers complained that the names had been improperly withheld.
The Justice Department unredacted parts of an Aug. 15, 2019, FBI internal document from the bureau's Criminal Investigative Division — which included a reference to billionaire Les Wexner as a co-conspirator — and reposted it after Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., complained that the department had violated the Epstein Files Transparency Act by redacting the names. Massie and Khanna co-authored the bill, which compelled the Justice Department to release all of its records on Epstein, and they have been vocally critical of the department's handling of the release.
"This is a well known retired CEO. DOJ should unredact this. Why did they redact this?" Massie wrote in a post on X linking to the version of the FBI document that was redacted. Massie posted the message after he and Khanna had gone to the Justice Department to review unredacted versions of the files.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche responded in a post of his own, saying: "The document you cite has numerous victim names. We have just unredacted Les Wexner’s name from this document, but his name already appears in the files thousands of times. DOJ is hiding nothing."
The newly released version of the 2019 document shows eight people are listed as co-conspirators, including four whose names are not redacted: Wexner, the former CEO of Victoria’s Secret; Lesley Groff, Epstein's longtime secretary; the late modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel; and Ghislaine Maxwell, the only person who was charged in connection with Epstein. She was convicted of sex trafficking charges and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Four other names on the document are still redacted. It is unclear who those people are; prosecutors have said Epstein used women he preyed on as recruiters. A separate document dated August 2019 indicated that some of the others were victims, as well, and had been cooperating with investigators.
A Wexner legal representative said in a statement Tuesday: “The Assistant U.S. Attorney told Mr. Wexner’s legal counsel in 2019 that Mr. Wexner was neither a co-conspirator nor target in any respect. Mr. Wexner cooperated fully by providing background information on Epstein and was never contacted again.”
Wexner had a long relationship with Epstein that dated to the 1980s, and he hired Epstein to manage his personal finances. He has said he cut ties after Epstein was accused of sexually abusing minors in Florida. It was after that, Wexner said, that he “discovered that he had misappropriated vast sums of money from me and my family.”
Wexner’s name was also mentioned in a July 2019 FBI email about possible co-conspirators that was made public as part of the Justice Department release. Another August 2019 FBI email said there was "limited evidence regarding his involvement."
He is scheduled to be deposed by the House Oversight Committee next week.
Groff also had a long relationship with Epstein and has denied any knowledge of his criminal activities.
Her attorney, Michael Bachner, said in a statement that Groff had never seen the FBI document and "was unaware of it. In fact, neither Lesley nor her counsel were ever notified by law enforcement that she was considered an Epstein 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."
Brunel, who also had a lengthy relationship with Epstein, was reported to have died by suicide in a Paris jail cell in February 2022 while he was awaiting trial on charges he raped a minor in a case related to Epstein. Brunel had denied any wrongdoing.
Brunel died less than three years after Epstein was found dead in his prison cell in New York on Aug. 10, 2019, while he was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Epstein's death, ruled a suicide, set off an avalanche of conspiracy theories that claimed he was murdered in a cover-up for his powerful clients.
Massie, after his visit Monday to the Justice Department, also identified a person whom he said Epstein told in a 2019 email that "I loved the torture video" as a "sultan" and called on the Justice Department to release the name.
Blanche responded that it was redacted because it is an email address, and "you know that the Sultan’s name is available unredacted in the files," pointing to a file that mentioned Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, an influential Emirati businessman.
A representative for bin Sulayem's company, DP World, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on that email or other exchanges he had with Epstein over the years. He has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
The sultan also has a tie to President Donald Trump. The Associated Press reported in 2005 that his company was involved in a deal at the time to build two Trump-branded properties, including a tulip-shaped hotel. The projects were later canceled.
Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November following furious bipartisan backlash to an unsigned joint FBI-Justice Department memo in July that said they both conducted an “exhaustive” review of their files related to Epstein and did not turn up evidence that could lead to an “investigation against uncharged third parties.”
“To that end, while we have labored to provide the public with maximum information regarding Epstein and ensured examination of any evidence in the government’s possession, it is the determination of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted,” the memo said.
Khanna and Massie have complained about other redactions in the Epstein files, as well, including what Khanna said were the names of "six wealthy powerful men" whose identities the Justice Department had withheld "for no apparent reason."
On Tuesday morning, Khanna read the names, which included Wexner’s and bin Sulayem’s, aloud on the House floor. He said all the names should have been made public because, under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, only victims' identities should be redacted.
Some Epstein survivors, however, have complained that their information has been released.
In a statement, a Justice Department spokesperson said: “We have said in public materials, on the website, and during the press conference that with 3.5 million pages, the teams may have inadvertently redacted individuals or left those unredacted who should have been. We have asked the public and the victims to contact us so that we can quickly address any oversight, which we have been doing daily."
The statement added that "four of the six men" Massie and Khanna referred to "are only included in this one document out of all the files. Wexner is referenced nearly two hundred times in the files, and Sultan bin Sulayem appears over 4,700 times.”
