'Today, he resigns': Dem lawmaker cheers takedown of billionaire Epstein associate

An Emirati billionaire stepped down from their role leading an major international logistics company Friday after being exposed for having received an especially disturbing email from Jeffrey Epstein in 2016, the Wall Street Journal reported, and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) celebrated.

Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, formally CEO of DP World, was revealed this week to be involved in the now-infamous 2016 email with Epstein in which the convicted child sex offender wrote that he “loved the torture video.” Bin Sulayem’s name was initially redacted by the Justice Department until it succumbed to pressure from Khanna and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).

“[Massie] & I called on DOJ to stop protecting this man & underact his name,” Khanna wrote Friday in a social media post on X. “They relented. Then I took to the House floor to name names. Today, he resigns. We will not rest until there is elite accountability for the Epstein class.”

DP World is a hugely influential company that specializes in cargo logistics, annually overseeing the transportation of 70 million shipping containers carried by 70,000 sea vessels, a staggering 10% of global container traffic. The company generated more than $20 billion in revenue in 2024, and until Friday morning, was led by Bin Sulayem as its CEO.

DP World announced Friday, however, that Bin Sulayem had resigned in the wake of being exposed in the DOJ’s release of Epstein files.

Bin Sulayem’s name was initially redacted by the DOJ, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche rationalizing the redaction because it included personal identifying information, that being Bin Sulayem’s email address. After Khanna and Massie viewed the unredacted file for themselves, they called on the DOJ to un-redact the file, with Khanna publicly naming Bin Slayem on the House floor this week.

Bin Sulayem had also helped Epstein purchase his second private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2016, using the Emirati billionaire to “disguise his identity because the owner of the island didn’t want to sell to Epstein,” the Wall Street Journal reported.