Massie Names Names From Epstein Files and Will Move for Vote on Second Transparency Act
GOP Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky named names in the Epstein Files on the floor of the House of Representatives yesterday, in announcing that he will seek a discharge petition to put yet another Epstein Files bill up for a vote.
The list included some of the most prominent names in the country, including bazillionaire hotel tycoon Thomas Pritzker and magician-illusionist David Copperfield.
On July 15, Massie and Democratic Representative Ro Khanna of California, along with two other Democrats, introduced the Epstein Transparency Files Act II to force the administration to obey the law and comply with the first Epstein Files Transparency Act that President Trump signed last year.
The Bills
The first Epstein Files bill, which Trump signed on November 19, required the Department of Justice to “to publish (in a searchable and downloadable format) all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in DOJ’s possession that relate to the investigation and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein.”
After Trump signed the bill under pressure, he immediately waged political war on those who forced his hand. One of them was former GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, whom Trump drove from office. She resigned in January and has become one of the president’s most vociferous critics.
“I think it’s great news for the country,” Trump said. “It’s great.”
Taylor Greene aside, DOJ created the website and posted files, but withheld 3 million, critics such as Massie say.
Thus did Massie, Khanna, Leger Fernández of New Mexico, and Yassamin Ansari of Arizona introduce the second Epstein Files Transparency Act.
“Since the Epstein Files Transparency Act was signed into law … the Department of Justice has flagrantly and consistently ignored EFTA’s disclosure requirements,” Massie said:
The Department of Justice continues to unlawfully withhold over 3 million Epstein files that should be released to the public. In addition, the DOJ is unlawfully maintaining heavy redactions on the files it is releasing. State attorneys general and victims should have the right to sue the Attorney General of the United States to compel compliance with a transparency law President Trump signed.
A news release from Massie’s office explains the bill’s particulars. “State attorneys general, district attorneys, other authorized State officials, members of Congress, and victims [can] challenge and sue the U.S. Attorney General for unlawfully withholding, redacting, delaying, concealing, removing, or failing to publish Epstein-related records,” the bill says.
Victims have a right “to obtain full, unredacted records concerning themselves or the harm they suffered, including relevant FBI FD-302 reports,” while any DOJ or FBI officials who conceal, destroy, falsify, withhold or lie about the files will face prison time.
The bill also forces the DOJ to give state and local prosecutors unredacted records, including classified records, needed to probe and prosecute crimes.
Because the House has failed to act on the bill, Massie announced last night that he seeks the 218 signatures needed to file a discharge petition, which permits a member to bring a bill to the floor that a committee has not reported.
Naming Names
During a one-minute speech yesterday, Massie listed names in the files of those he and other critics think must be investigated.
Noting that DOJ is withholding 3 million files, Massie said the new Epstein bill will bring “accountability to the Department of Justice and closure for survivors.”
“We want perpetrators of these crimes to be investigated and prosecuted,” Massie continued, offering 14 names, including these luminaries:
- Jes Staley: former bigwig at JP Morgan Chase, and “Epstein’s chief defender at the bank,” The New York Times reported;
- Leon Black: billionaire investment magnate who was tight as a tick with Epstein;
- Les Wexner: founder of Bath & Body Words and Victoria’s Secret principal, who used Epstein as his financier;
- David Copperfield: magician/illusionist photographed with Epstein’s procurer, Ghislaine Maxwell, and accused by multiple women of sexual crimes;
- Tom Pritzker: Virginia Giuffre accused the hotel tycoon and cousin of far-left Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker of molesting her; and
- Former Prince Andrew: Giuffre accused him of raping her and sued him. Queen Elizabeth cashiered him. Now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, he settled with Giuffre for about $16 million in 2022. Early this year, British cops arrested him for spilling state secrets.
“Thomas Massie named some of the names!!” Taylor Greene wrote on X.
Massie Out
The former congresswoman wasn’t the only victim of Trump’s intemperate rage on learning someone has defied him.
Trump also went on the rampage against Massie, and led the social-media and political effort to put a no-name, Israel First agitator in his place. A strong opponent of Trump’s war against Iran on behalf of Israel, Massie went down in flames largely because the Israel Lobby spent tens of millions of dollars to defeat him. Total spent: $35 million, with $15,522,757 coming from the Lobby alone: $63,898 in donations, and $15,458,859 in independent expenditures.
“We played the lead role in taking out Congressman Thomas Massie in his primary, because a Republican who treats Israel as a problem and votes with the far left against the Jewish state does not get a pass from us,” said Republican Jewish Coalition Chairman Norm Coleman in Las Vegas during the weekend:
We named it. We funded the fight. And Kentucky Republicans sent him home.
Massie‘s supporters hoped the soon-to-be former lawmaker would run for outgoing GOP Senators Mitch McConnell‘s seat. But Massie ruled that out during a short chat with a TMZ reporter outside the U.S. Capitol.
Massie is uninterested in moving to the Senate with “a bunch of geriatrics … who should be in nursing homes,” he told the reporter. “It‘s the same circus with different monkeys.”
