GOP rebel corners top Trump official on Epstein files blunder: ‘Can’t say he didn’t see’
Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) were hit by a barrage of attacks from top Trump officials Friday night after being accused of linking “random” people to Jeffrey Epstein, but on Saturday, Massie hit back with an blistering observation that appeared to undercut the core of those attacks.
Earlier this week, Massie and Khanna successfully pressured the Justice Department to reveal the names of six individuals whose identities had been redacted in the agency’s release of Epstein files, which by law are mostly limited to only including redactions to protect the identities of minors or victims. On Tuesday, Khanna read the names of the individuals on the House floor.
On Friday, however, the DOJ claimed that four of the six individuals were “random” people with no connection to Epstein, and later that evening, several top Trump officials went on the attack.
“Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie are some of the dumbest r------ ever to be in Congress,” wrote White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, using a slur for people with intellectual disabilities, in a social media post on X.
Deputy FBI Director Todd Blanche accused Khanna of having “ran to X and the House floor” to make “false accusations about four men,” and top DOJ official Harmeet Dhillon accused Khanna and Massie of “making fools” of themselves.
While the four men in question do appear to have no connection to Epstein, Massie hit back at the Trump officials early Saturday morning with an astute observation that appeared to undercut their entire line of attack.
“You’re better than this Harmeet. I literally told DOJ these might be random guys in a line-up before DOJ released the names,” Massie wrote Saturday in a social media post on X.
Massie had, in fact, noted that the individuals whose names were redacted could have been “just randoms in a line-up” on Monday, before the DOJ un-redacted their names. That same day, Blanche reposted Massie’s social media post while also announcing that his agency had un-redacted the names of the six individuals.
“Todd retweeted my post, so you can’t say he didn’t see it,” Massie fired off Saturday. “DOJ should have provided the same context I did when they released the names.”
Khanna also clapped back at the barrage of attacks from Trump officials, laying blame for the entire ordeal squarely on the DOJ.
“The problem is DOJ illegally redacted names without explanation and then refused to give context for the names once they redacted,” Massie wrote in a social media post on X. “This is why Massie and I have been pushing for the full release of the files with context and protecting survivors.”