Victoria’s Secret founder Les Wexner has been torched by lawmakers after he claimed he was a victim of Jeffrey Epstein.
The billionaire sat for a private deposition with lawmakers from the House Oversight Committee at his estate in Ohio on Wednesday.
Wexner, 88, categorically denied any knowledge of Epstein’s sex trafficking crimes in a written statement claiming that he too was a victim of the pedophile financier.
‘I was naïve, foolish, and gullible to put any trust in Jeffrey Epstein. He was a con man. And while I was conned, I have done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide,’ Wexner said.
He added that Epstein was ‘diabolical, and a master manipulator.’
‘The other life he led, that we now know was full of unthinkable crimes, he most carefully and fully hid from me,’ Wexner wrote.
‘He knew that I never would have tolerated his horrible behavior. Not any of it. At no time did I ever witness the side of Epstein’s life for which he is now infamous.’
But his claims were trashed by Democratic lawmakers during an intermission during the deposition this afternoon.
Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari told reporters: ‘We have heard over and over again from these victims, the name of Les Wexner and the importance of following the money …
‘The real reason Jeffrey Epstein was able to get away with raping and abusing children, young women, boys, young men, for so many years was because of the vast amounts of money that he was able to acquire and that largely came from Les Wexner here in Ohio.’
Wexner has spent years answering questions over his relationship with Epstein after they went into business together.
In an extraordinary move, Wexner gave Epstein power of attorney in 1991, allowing the financier to make investments and purchase property on his behalf.
He also famously gave Epstein his Manhattan townhouse – then the largest single-family property in the city – for a nominal $1 fee in the 1990s.
Wexner was also a signatory to Epstein’s now-infamous 50th birthday book.
‘Dear Jeffrey – I wanted to get you what you wanted. So here it is,’ reads the page signed by Wexner. An image of a woman’s breasts followed under the letter’s intro. ‘Happy Birthday. Your friend, Leslie,’ Wexner said.
Representative Jasmine Crockett, a fellow Democrat, also noted Wednesday that Wexner ‘was asked about Donald Trump and Epstein and whether or not they had been in the same room and what that looked like.’
President Trump and Wexner knew each other because Trump frequently attended Victoria’s Secret Fashion Shows.
She said that Wexner claimed that ‘he didn’t quite remember but he imagined that yes that possibly happened because he did remember that Donald Trump also would like to show up to the Victoria Secret runway shows.’
‘That was a little odd to him because Donald Trump was not engaged in fashion whatsoever,’ Crockett noted.
A source familiar with Tuesday’s depositions told the Daily Mail that Wexner would not describe Trump and Epstein as friends, and that he never had a conversation with Trump about Epstein or with Epstein about Trump.
Wexner’s name appears in the Epstein files over 1,000 times, and the two shared a lengthy business relationship.
Epstein first met Wexner through a business associate around 1986.
It was an opportune time for Wexner’s finances. The Ohio business owner had grown a single Limited store in Columbus into a suite of 1980s mall staples: The Limited, Limited Express, Lane Bryant and Victoria’s Secret. Bath & Body Works, Abercrombie & Fitch, Lerner, White Barn Candle Co. and Henri Bendel would follow.
Within a couple years, Wexner had turned over management of his vast fortune to Epstein. He gave Epstein authority over his investments, business deals, properties and he would help develop what would become the vast Wexner estate in then-rural New Albany, documents show.
Epstein had ‘excellent judgment and unusually high standards,’ Wexner told Vanity Fair in a 2003 interview, and he was ‘always a most loyal friend.’
On Wednesday, the billionaire said he didn’t circulate in Epstein’s social circle, but often heard accounts of his encounters with other wealthy people.
Epstein ‘carefully used his acquaintance with important individuals to curate an aura of legitimacy,’ Wexner said.
He said he visited Epstein’s infamous island only once, stopping for a few hours one morning with his wife and young children while they were cruising on their boat.
Robert Garcia, a California Democrat who sat in on Wednesday’s interview, expressed skepticism in comments to reporters gathered near the proceeding.
‘It is interesting that Mr Wexner has already begun to clarify in his mind that somehow he and Mr. Epstein weren’t even friends,’ Garcia told reporters. ‘We should be very clear that the two were very close, per reporting. They spent a lot of time together.’
In one of the newly released documents, Epstein sent rough notes to himself about Wexner saying: ‘never ever, did anything without informing les’ and ‘I would never give him up.’ Another document, an apparent draft letter to Wexner, said the two ‘had “gang stuff” for over 15 years’ and were mutually indebted to each other – as Wexner helped make Epstein rich and Epstein helped make Wexner richer.
Wexner spokesperson Tom Davies said Wexner never received the letter, characterizing it as fitting ‘a pattern of untrue, outlandish, and delusional statements made by Epstein in desperate attempts to perpetuate his lies and justify his misconduct.’
Wexner did not publicly reveal until after Epstein’s arrest on federal sex trafficking charges in July 2019 that he had severed their relationship. In a Wexner Foundation letter that August, he said that happened in 2007. But the Justice Department’s newly released records show the two were in touch after that.
Wexner e-mailed Epstein on June 26, 2008, after a plea deal was announced that would require him to serve 18 months in a Florida jail on a state charge of soliciting prostitution from a minor in order to avoid federal prosecution. He wound up serving 13 months.
‘Abigail told me the result … all I can say is I feel sorry. You violated your own number 1 rule … always be careful,’ Wexner wrote. Epstein replied: ‘no excuse.’
Davies said the 2007 date Wexner cited in 2019 applied to firing Epstein as financial adviser, revoking his power of attorney and removing his name from Wexner´s bank accounts.
Wexner also said in the 2019 letter that Epstein had misappropriated ‘vast sums’ of his and his family’s fortune while overseeing his finances.
An investigative memo from the latest document release says that Wexner’s attorneys told investigators in 2008 that Epstein had repaid him $100 million.
Wexner said in Wednesday’s statement that Epstein returned ‘a substantial amount’ of the undisclosed total.
Garcia said that congressional investigators have identified more than $1 billion that was ‘either transferred, provided in stocks or given directly’ by Wexner to Epstein – though Wexner ‘appears to be unaware’ of much of it.
Wexner has never been charged with any crimes in connection with Epstein.
