Washington — Billionaire retail tycoon Les Wexner is testifying before a House committee Wednesday as part of the panel’s investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Wexner, who hired Epstein to manage his money and was a longtime benefactor, was among members of Epstein’s inner circle who were subpoenaed for testimony last month. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is conducting the deposition behind closed doors in Wexner’s home state of Ohio on Wednesday morning.
Wexner, 88, previously led the parent company of Victoria’s Secret and worked with Epstein beginning in the mid-1980s. The two men parted ways after Epstein’s 2006 arrest but stayed in touch, documents show.
Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the committee, said ahead of the deposition that lawmakers have “a lot of questions” about their finances, the relationship between the two men and what Wexner knew about Epstein’s activities, among other matters. “There’s probably no single person that facilitated the access to wealth and money that was transferred over to Epstein” more than Wexner, Garcia said.
“They were very close for a long period of time,” Garcia said on MS NOW on Tuesday. “Wexner himself has been named pretty significantly in the Epstein files but also by survivors as a key piece of this investigation. And so tomorrow is a very, very important day for us.”
The deposition comes after the Justice Department released more than 3 million pages of files related to Epstein under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Last week, GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who was among the lawmakers who led the push to force the release of the files, pointed to a 2019 FBI document that was initially redacted and refers to Wexner as a “co-conspirator.”
Massie questioned Attorney General Pam Bondi about the redaction days later when she testified before the House Judiciary Committee. Bondi said that the Justice Department unredacted Wexner’s name within 40 minutes of Massie raising the issue. She also said she believes Wexner’s name was listed more than 4,000 times in the documents.
Wexner has not been charged with a crime and has long said he cut ties with Epstein after his crimes were made public. A legal representative for Wexner told CBS News that a federal prosecutor told Wexner’s legal counsel that he was being viewed as a “source of information about Epstein and was not a target in any respect.”
“Mr. Wexner cooperated fully by providing background information on Epstein and was never contacted again,” the representative said.
Wexner’s deposition comes after Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate of Epstein’s, testified before the panel last week. She invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to answer questions.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/les-wexner-jeffrey-epstein-house-testimony/
