Kamal Ghorui
Les Wexner’s long-time friendship with Jeffrey Epstein was set to be the subject of a closed-door congressional deposition in Ohio on Wednesday, where the billionaire retail magnate was expected to face questions about new revelations contained in the latest release of Justice Department documents related to the late sexual predator.Wexner, 88, the retired founder of L Brands, said he planned to cooperate with a subpoena from Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, AP news agency reported.
As one of Epstein’s most prominent former friends, Wexner already spent years answering for their decades-long association. In court documents, prominent Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre claimed that Wexner was one of the men Epstein trafficked her to.Wexner consistently denied any knowledge of or involvement in the millionaire financier’s crimes and said he never met Giuffre. He told L Brands investors in 2019 that he was embarrassed that he ever got close to someone “so sick, so cunning, so depraved.”He was never accused of wrongdoing and the overall picture provided by the DOJ documents was that Epstein did not run a sex trafficking ring.Wexner’s name appeared more than 1,000 times in the Epstein files, which his spokesperson said was not unexpected given their longstanding relationship. The documents shed new light on his relationship to Epstein, which ended bitterly after Wexner and his wife Abigail learned he had been stealing from them, while raising many new questions.Epstein first met Wexner through a business associate around 1986.It was an opportune time for Wexner’s finances. The successful Ohio businessman grew a single Limited store in Columbus into a powerhouse suite of ’80s mall-culture staples: The Limited, Limited Express, Lane Bryant and Victoria’s Secret. Abercrombie & Fitch, Lerner, White Barn Candle Co. and others followed.Within a couple years, Wexner turned over management of his vast fortune to Epstein. He gave his now-trusted associate his power of attorney in 1991, allowing Epstein to make investments and do business deals and to purchase property and help develop what became the vast Wexner estate in then-rural New Albany, Ohio, documents showed. Wednesday’s deposition was set to take place either there or nearby, according to participating lawmakers.Epstein had “excellent judgment and unusually high standards,” Wexner told Vanity Fair in a 2003 interview, and he was “always a most loyal friend.”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.
