Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky used his one-minute House floor speech on Monday to name individuals he says were co-conspirators of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Massie, who is leaving Congress in January after losing his primary, argued that the government has withheld more than 3 million files related to the Epstein case for a year since President Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act. He announced the introduction of Epstein Files Transparency Act II, which he says aims to "bring the fight to the state courts, accountability to the Department of Justice and closure for survivors."
"We want perpetrators of these crimes to be investigated and prosecuted," Massie said on the floor.
But the attorney representing nearly a dozen Epstein survivors is not optimistic. Arick Fudal, who represents 11 survivors, told NewsNation that while he applauds Massie for releasing the names, the Department of Justice has had this information for a long time and has done nothing with it. "It is certainly a positive step for those names to be released, but unless Trump believes it will help him politically, I don't expect his DOJ to do anything to help the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators achieve justice," Fudal said.
Survivors themselves are speaking out. Audra Christiansen, a former Playboy Playmate who says Epstein abused and trafficked her in 2004, expressed gratitude to Massie for naming names on the floor. She stressed that survivors have long questioned why the investigation seemed to stop with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell when evidence points to a broader network. "It is about accountability, examining who participated, who facilitated, who enabled, who knew what was happening and whether anyone was protected from scrutiny," Christiansen said. She added that the Department of Justice needs to show survivors that "no individual is above investigation."
Jess Michaels, who alleges Epstein first abused her in 1991, was less impressed. "Glad to hear the names read on the House floor by Thomas Massie, but make no mistake, this was not an exhaustive list or a spectacular feat of justice," she said. "This is scraping the floor of the bare minimum while survivors continue to wait."
Massie's list included prominent figures such as Jes Staley, Leon Black, Les Wexner, David Copperfield, Lapo Elkann, Thomas Pritzker, Glenn Dubin, Frederic Fekkai, Eduardo Teodorani, Jean-Luc Brunel (who died by suicide in 2022 after being charged in France), Daniel Siad (recently deceased), Ramsey Elkholy, former Prince Andrew (now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor), and former Epstein assistant Lesley Groff.
Several of those named have been questioned by the House Oversight Committee and have denied wrongdoing. Mountbatten-Windsor is under investigation in the UK for suspicion of misconduct in public office. It is important to note that appearing in the DOJ's Epstein documents does not constitute evidence of a crime. Only Ghislaine Maxwell has been criminally charged in the U.S. in connection with Epstein; she is serving a 20-year federal sentence.
The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment at publication time. Massie suggested that releasing the names might "shame the Department of Justice into delivering justice." The move comes amid ongoing public interest in the Epstein files and broader debates about transparency and accountability. For more on the political dynamics, see the DOJ's appeal over unredacting Epstein files, and Trump's recent attacks on Massie over other policy disputes.
