Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., read six names on the House floor this week and said they were "rich, powerful men the Department of Justice was hiding" in recently released files related to Jeffrey Epstein. After questions from the Guardian, the Department of Justice said four of the men Khanna named are not connected to Epstein at all but appeared in a photo lineup compiled by the Southern District of New York (SDNY).

Khanna, along with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., has been pushing the Department of Justice to unseal names in the files, arguing some names were unsealed illegally. Massie claimed on X this week that he forced the Department of Justice to unseal a file listing 20 names, birthdays, and photos, including Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Khanna then read some of those names on the House floor.

Of the six men Khanna mentioned, two are Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, who has since resigned as CEO of DP World, an Emirati billionaire businessman, and Leslie Wexner, a billionaire retail magnate, but the other four names had no apparent public profile.

A spokesperson for the department, Todd Blenches, the office of the Deputy Attorney General, told the Guardian that the file was a photo lineup used for investigative purposes by the SDNY.

"Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie forced the FBI to unseal completely random people selected for a photo lineup years ago – men and women. These individuals have nothing to do with Epstein or Maxwell," the spokesperson told the Guardian.

After being asked for comment and told by administration officials that the document was a photo lineup, Khanna posted on X that "I wish the Department of Justice had provided this explanation sooner than unsealing and unsealing their names. They failed to protect survivors, created confusion for innocent men, and protected rich and powerful abusers. We need full transparency and the truth." She also thanked the Guardian for reporting on the link to the photo lineup.

The Guardian spoke to two men whose names Khanna read on the floor. Both strongly denied knowing Epstein at all; one said he didn't know his name was mentioned on the House floor in relation to Epstein until he was contacted by the Guardian. The two men acknowledged they were arrested by the NYPD in the past on unrelated crimes, which may explain how their photos ended up in a photo lineup compiled by law enforcement.

Salvatore Nuarté, from Queens, New York, said he called Khanna's office after hearing his name was mentioned. "I don't know what they're doing at the Department of Justice," Nuarté told the Guardian. "But how can I clear my name?"

A spokesperson for Khanna's office shared an email she sent to Nuarté after he reached out. "The Department of Justice was not transparent about what the list was or why they unsealed and unsealed your name," wrote Sarah Drori, Khanna's communications director, to Nuarté. "We will make sure we are absolutely factual and truthful as soon as we have those facts and of course, not perpetuating any false impression the Department of Justice created."

Leonid Leonov, whose name was misspelled as Leonik Leonov in the files but whose photo and birthday match the file, is an IT manager in Queens. He strongly denied knowing Epstein. "I have no second or third degree connection with him. Never worked for him, nothing," he said when reached by phone.

The other two men named by Khanna, Zurab Mikeladze and Nikolas Kaputo, could not be found.

A spokesperson for Massie responded to a long list of questions by only posting a link to a Massie X post explaining that Kaputo was not the Italian politician with the same name.

Massie, who co-authored the Epstein Files Transparency Act with Khanna, has been critical of the Department of Justice's release and unsealing of files this week. Names of victims were sometimes unsealed in the files, Massie said this week, while some of Epstein's wealthy and powerful associates were unsealed elsewhere.

The file of 20 names and photos – taken from the NYPD, except for Epstein, Maxwell, and two victims, whose photos appear to be passport photos taken in Palm Beach – appears four times on the Department of Justice website, but with different unsealing.

In one version, all the birthdays for 20 people are shown, except for two lines Massie said were victims. Another version shows some photos unsealed. By analyzing the unsealed information in four versions, the Guardian found that 11 of the people listed appeared to represent a diverse intersection of people with New York City connections, many of whom had NYPD misdemeanor arrests. It is not known what happened in those criminal cases. Five women listed had similar dark hair to Epstein, were in their 40s or 50s when arrested, and five men had similar hair, age, and coloring to Epstein.

The Department of Justice previously told CBS News that the four men named by Khanna "are only represented in this one document out of all the files. Wexner is referenced in files almost 200 times, and bin Sulayem appears 4,700 times."

After Massie and Khanna pushed for bin Sulayem to be the recipient of an email Epstein wrote saying he "loved torture videos," the Emirati billionaire resigned from DP World, the logistics company said today.

A legal representative for Wexner said: "An Assistant U.S. Attorney told Mr. Wexner's legal counsel in 2019 that Mr. Wexner was being considered as a source of information about Epstein and was not a target in any way. Mr. Wexner fully cooperated by providing background information about Epstein and has not been contacted by him since."