GOP congressman pounces after Alex Jones accuses him of Epstein cover-up
MAGA podcaster Alex Jones accused a Republican congressman of a Jeffrey Epstein cover-up, and the lawmaker hit back on Sunday.
Jones, known for spreading right-wing conspiracies online, lashed out at Thomas Massie, who has been at the forefront of the Republican effort to expose files related to the deceased convicted child sex abuser. Specifically, Jones asked Massie to release unredacted Epstein file names he's privy to as an active congressman.
"I want the f------ names," Jones said, specifically calling out Massie. "Massie, you've been in there three weeks, where are the f------- names? Is Massie covering up the names?"
Massie issued an extensive takedown, starting with, "Every member of Congress has the same access to the same files as me. I haven’t watched your video here, but have you addressed the cowards who wouldn’t sign the discharge petition and still won’t go look at the files?"
He went on to say, "I forced the release of every man’s name that I could find in the redactions so far. This includes the Sultan (now resigned) who discussed the torture video with Epstein. I was the one who got that out there. I forced the release of Leslie Wexner’s name in the FBI document that lists him as a coconspirator in a child sex trafficking case."
Going even further, Massie called out AG Pam Bondi.
"I’ve done several interviews and even told Bondi in the hearing that the problems now are (a) the DOJ has files they can’t/won’t unredact for us (they claim they received the documents already redacted), (b) the DOJ made available, but then removed critical files from the database before we could view them… we want to view unredacted because it appears these could have coconspirators' names in them," he wrote, adding, "DOJ hasn’t released every document yet including FD-302s and internal communications about decisions not to investigate."
Offering an explanation, Massie noted, "In some of the emails I tried to view, the sender was a female and possibly a victim, so that could be why myself and other members of Congress haven’t disclosed them... You (or your staff) can post the EFTA# for documents that you believe contain men’s names redacted, and I’ll go look at those documents at DOJ to see if those documents contain men’s names. If the redacted identifier is an email address not associated with a name, I can put the email address back into the DOJ computer as a search term to see if it is associated with a man’s name elsewhere in the documents. This is how I discovered it was the Sultan who Epstein was discussing a torture video with."
Adding an apparent insult, Massie wrote on X, "Try not to be a nenard about this."