Rep. Ro Khanna is pretty clearly planning to run for president in 2028 in the AOC lane. In the wind up to that future announcement he's spent the last few months raising his profile nationally in various ways.
In late December, Khanna came out in favor of the California Wealth Tax and mocked billionaires who planned to leave the state to avoid the tax. While doing this he repeatedly lied about the tax, claiming it was a 1% tax when in fact it's a 5% tax.
Khanna represents Silicon Valley so his support for the wealth tax created a backlash with some suggesting it was time to primary Khanna. Khanna then used that to fundraise and claim that "billionaires" were trying to primary him. Only the person who suggested primarying him wasn't a billionaire. He repeatedly asked Khanna to correct the record and Khanna did everything he could to change the subject and ultimately refused to take any responsibility for the bogus language of the fundraiser email. In short, he acted like a weasel.
The more significant point is that the wealth tax is looking like a genuine disaster for California, to the point that Gov. Newsom is making headlines essentially saying, 'I told you so.' In just a few weeks since Khanna mocked the idea of billionaires leaving the state, several of the wealthiest people in California have moved out of the state including Sergei Brin, Larry Page and most recently Mark Zuckerberg.
In total, there was around 2 trillion worth of wealth held by California billionaires last year. Because of the wealth tax, more than 1 trillion in wealth has already left the state. So any hope this would raise the money proponents claimed is gone. In fact, they would need to double the amount of the wealth tax at this point to have any hope of reaching their numbers. Ro Khanna, who has made himself the public face of this looks like an idiot, though he seems to be counting on voters not knowing the details.
Jump forward to this week and Khanna has faceplanted once again. This time it involves the Epstein files.
Rep. Ro Khanna took to the House floor Tuesday and read aloud the names of six “wealthy, powerful men” whose names were originally redacted in the Jeffrey Epstein files.
It comes after Khanna (D-Calif.) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) emerged from reviewing unredacted materials related to the late convicted sex offender and demanded that the Justice Department reveal these individuals’ identities to the public if their redactions did not fall under the terms established by Congress..
The lawmakers threatened to expose the men if DOJ did not cooperate, taking advantage of the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause that under certain circumstances can shield members of Congress from litigation. DOJ ultimately complied with some of their requests, Massie announced in social media posts Tuesday morning.
In order to show how serious he was about accountability, Khanna read the names of six men mentioned in the files on the House floor.
.@RepThomasMassie and I forced last night the DOJ to disclose the identities of 6 men:
— Rep. Ro Khanna (@RepRoKhanna) February 10, 2026
Salvatore Nuara, Zurab Mikeladze, Leonic Leonov, Nicola Caputo, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, and billionaire businessman Leslie Wexner.
I share details of what more we learned to hold the… pic.twitter.com/5JwKwRUNIF
One of those names, Les Wexner, has been connected to the Epstein files for years. His name appearing in the files is a surprise to no one. Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem was the head of a Dubai logistics company called DP World. In the wake of Khanna's announcement that his name was in the files, he was fired and replaced.
The head of the Dubai-based ports giant DP World resigned on Friday, the company said, amid mounting scrutiny of his ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, a notable business figure in the Middle East, was named this week in a trove of files related to Mr. Epstein that was released by the Justice Department.
In a statement, DP World announced the appointment of a new group chairman and a new chief executive, positions that were held by Mr. bin Sulayem. He was widely credited with transforming DP World — which is owned by the government of Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates — from a regional ports and terminals operator into a global logistics powerhouse.
And that leaves four other people mentioned by Khanna because their names were in a file. Who are they? Apparently they are nobodies who appeared in a photo lineup.
A spokesperson from the office of Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, told the Guardian the file was a photo lineup used for investigative purposes by the SDNY.
“Rep Ro Khanna and Rep Thomas Massie forced the unmasking of completely random people selected years ago for an FBI lineup – men and women. These individuals have NOTHING to do with Epstein or Maxwell,” the spokesperson told the Guardian...
The Guardian spoke with two of the men whose names Khanna read out on the floor. They both strongly denied knowing Epstein at all; one said he didn’t realize his name had been mentioned on the House floor in connection to Epstein until the Guardian contacted him. The two men acknowledged they were arrested by the NYPD in the past for unrelated crimes, which could explain how their photos ended up in a photo array assembled by law enforcement.
Salvatore Nuarte, of Queens, New York, said he called Khanna’s office after hearing that his name was mentioned. “I don’t know if they know what they are doing over there at the justice department,” he told the Guardian. “But how can I clear my name?”...
Leonid Leonov, whose name was incorrectly listed as Leonic Leonov in the files, but whose photo and birthday matches the file, is an IT manager in Queens. He vigorously denied knowing Epstein. “I don’t even have a second or third degree connection to him. Never worked for him, nothing,” he said when reached via phone.
Khanna and Massie are now backtracking, but, true to form, Khanna isn't taking responsibility for his own mistake. Instead he's trying to lay if off on the DOJ for failing to inform him the men were part of a photo lineup.
I appreciate @JSweetLI’s reporting confirming today that Salvatore Nuara, Zurab Mikeladze, Leonid Leonov, and Nicola Caputo were just part of a photo line up and are not connected to Epstein's crimes.
— Rep. Ro Khanna (@RepRoKhanna) February 13, 2026
I wish DOJ had provided that explanation earlier instead of redacting then…
I wish DOJ had provided that explanation earlier instead of redacting then unredacting their names. They have failed to protect survivors, created confusion for innocent men, and have protected rich and powerful abusers.
We must have full transparency and the truth.
Again, what happened here is that Khanna (and Massie) read the unredacted files, saw these names and demanded the DOJ unredact them. The DOJ did and then Khanna took to the House floor and read out the names, calling them "six, wealthy powerful men that the DOJ hid for no apparent reason." (see the top video above at 0:20 seconds).
Khanna should have found out who they were before reading their names into the congressional record as "wealthy, powerful men." Today, Massie claimed he warned the DOJ this might be a lineup but blames DOJ for not confirming it before Khanna read the names out.
I told DOJ on Monday this might be a lineup, and if so, they should explain that. How long did it take DOJ to figure it out after I told them? https://t.co/sgcszYQhEx
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) February 14, 2026
Sorry, but this doesn't all fall on the DOJ. You can say that DOJ screwed up by a) agreeing to Khanna and Massie's demand to unredact the names and b) not knowing the names were part of a lineup. But it's also definitely true that Khanna and Massie thought they had a big scoop involving "wealthy, powerful men" and apparently did nothing to check that before announcing their names to the world.
If Khanna had done this anywhere but the House floor he'd be facing four defamation lawsuits right now, but the Speech and Debate clause means he can't be sued. Nevertheless, what Khanna did here was irresponsible and dumb. The fact that he refuses to take responsibility for his own failure seems like par for the course at this point.
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