Epstein Files: Lawmakers Identify Les Wexner, Sultan bin Sulayem, and 4 Others Hidden in Just 2 Hours of Review

Two hours. That's all it took for a pair of congressmen to find six names the Department of Justice had hidden from the public.

Representative Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, stood on the House floor on 10 February and read those names aloud.

Among them: Leslie Wexner, the 88-year-old billionaire behind Victoria's Secret, and Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, CEO of Dubai-based logistics firm DP World. Both men had their identities blacked out when federal agencies released millions of pages tied to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

'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,' Khanna said.

An FBI Label That Changes Everything

The most damaging detail sits in a 15 August 2019 FBI document from the bureau's Criminal Investigative Division. Five days after Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell, the agency listed eight people as 'co-conspirators'. Wexner was one of them. So were Ghislaine Maxwell, now serving 20 years for sex trafficking, and late modelling agent Jean-Luc Brunel.

A separate FBI email from that same month called Wexner a 'secondary co-conspirator' while noting there was 'limited evidence' of his involvement. He was served a subpoena.

Wexner's legal team pushed back hard. A representative told CBS News that prosecutors informed his counsel in 2019 that 'Mr. Wexner was being viewed as a source of information about Epstein and was not a target in any respect.' The billionaire has long said he cut ties with Epstein after the 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution. He's scheduled to face the House Oversight Committee on 18 February.

Emails That Won't Go Away

Bin Sulayem's name appears more than 4,700 times in the released files. The Emirati businessman, whose company moves roughly 10% of global container trade, exchanged messages with Epstein for years after the conviction.

One email stands out. On 24 April 2009, Epstein wrote: 'where are you? are you ok, I loved the torture video.' The recipient's identity was redacted. Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who reviewed unredacted files alongside Khanna, said the DOJ 'tacitly admitted that Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem was the sender of the torture video.'

It's unclear what that video showed. But the fallout has been swift. Canada's second-largest pension fund, La Caisse, announced it was pausing all future investments with DP World. Britain's BII investment arm followed. 'We are shocked by the allegations,' a BII spokesperson told Reuters.

Neither DP World nor bin Sulayem has commented publicly. He hasn't been accused of criminal wrongdoing connected to Epstein.

The Other Four Names

Khanna also read out Salvatore Nuara, Zurab Mikeladze, Leonic Leonov, and Nicola Caputo. A DOJ spokesperson said these four 'are only included in this one document out of all the files.' Their identities and affiliations remain unclear.

So Why Were They Hidden?

This is where the story gets uncomfortable.

Khanna and Massie co-authored the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed by President Donald Trump in November. The law required the Justice Department to release all investigative records, with redactions allowed only to protect victims.

However, victims' names have appeared in public documents. But the names of wealthy men connected to Epstein were blacked out.

'The Epstein Transparency Act requires them to unredact those FBI files, and yet the Justice Department said to me and to Congressman Massie, "We just uploaded whatever the FBI sent us,''' Khanna said. 'That means the survivor statement to the FBI naming rich and powerful men who went to Epstein's island, who went to his ranch, who went to his home and raped and abused underage girls — they were all hidden.'

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche accused Massie of 'grandstanding'. He said the department is 'hiding nothing' and blamed the errors on the sheer volume of 3.5 million pages.

But here's the problem. If two congressmen found six hidden names in two hours, what's buried in the 70 to 80% that remains redacted?

Two hours. Six names. And millions of pages still to go.