On August 31, 2026, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) walked onto the House floor and did something federal prosecutors have refused to do for years: he read 14 names out loud. Invoking the Speech or Debate Clause of the U.S. Constitution — which shields legislators from civil or criminal liability for statements made during official proceedings — Massie called them Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators and dared the Department of Justice to investigate. The DOJ, he argued, is still sitting on more than 3 million files.
The 14 Names Massie Put on the Record
The list is the speech. Massie named Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (known until recently as Prince Andrew), Les Wexner, Leon Black, Jes Staley, David Copperfield, Tom Pritzker, Glenn Dubin, Lapo Elkann, Frédéric Fekkai, Edoardo Teodorani-Fabbri, Ramsey Elkholy, and Lesley Groff, along with two deceased associates, Jean-Luc Brunel and Daniel Siad. Massie was explicit: these are legislative allegations, not court findings. The Speech or Debate Clause — Article I, Section 6 of the U.S. Constitution — gives members of Congress broad immunity for exactly this kind of on-record statement. He used that protection deliberately.
His stated goal wasn’t theater. By reading the names into the public congressional record, Massie said he hoped to “shame the Department of Justice” into taking action. Whether shame moves a federal agency is another question — but the names are now there, permanently, in the official record of a House floor session.
The Bill Behind the Speech: Epstein Files Transparency Act II
The speech was the launch vehicle for a concrete legislative push. Massie, alongside Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), is using a discharge petition to force a floor vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act II — bypassing committee leadership, which can otherwise kill a bill before it reaches a vote. A discharge petition needs 218 signatures to succeed.
The updated bill goes further than previous transparency measures. If passed, it would close disclosure gaps in current law, enforce stricter compliance on the DOJ, and — critically — give victims, state attorneys general, and members of Congress the ability to sue the DOJ over improperly redacted or withheld records. That last provision matters: it creates an enforcement mechanism, not just a request.
Survivors of Epstein’s abuse have been waiting for something that functions like accountability for years. The argument Massie is making — and that the bill codifies — is that the federal government passed transparency laws and then found ways around them. The 3 million files the DOJ still holds are the evidence of that gap.
