The former boss of the Victoria’s Secret lingerie brand, Les Wexner, said he has “done nothing wrong” and has “nothing to hide”, as he testifies on Wednesday before a congressional committee in relation to his past ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Wexner is one of several Epstein associates subpoenaed to testify before the House oversight committee in their continued investigation of the late financier’s crimes.
In a prepared statement, provided by his team, Wexner called himself “naïve, foolish, and gullible to put any trust in Jeffrey Epstein”.
“I completely and irrevocably cut ties with Epstein nearly twenty years ago when I learned that he was an abuser, a crook, and a liar,” he said. Wexner, who hired Epstein in 1991 to manage his money, has insisted that he was not aware of Epstein’s abuse when he worked with the financier.
The Wall Street Journal reported in 2019 that Wexner was integral to Epstein’s success in finance, with Epstein reportedly earning $200m from the deal.
“To my enormous embarrassment and regret I, like many others, was duped by a world-class con man,” Wexner continued.
Several Democrats on the oversight committee spoke about Wexner’s closed-door testimony during a midday break and said that questioning, which is taking place at Wexner’s Ohio home, will continue throughout the afternoon. They also said no Republican members of Congress were present, though some Republican representatives’ staffers attended.
Ranking Democrat Robert Garcia said that “there are many, many questions” they want to ask Wexner.
“As this day moves forward, we are here because we want to talk to anyone that has information about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s … abuse and trafficking of women and girls,” Garcia said. “There is no single person that was more involved in providing Jeffrey Epstein with the financial support to commit his crimes than Les Wexner.”
California representative Dave Min said that Wexner had claimed not to know about Epstein’s crimes.
“I can basically say that he has basically alleged that he saw no evil, heard no evil, despite being in the room with Jeffrey Epstein over and over and over – and it’s really just not credible,” Min said.
“I realize he’s an elderly gentleman. Memories fade, but the reputation of Jeffrey Epstein is very clear. Everyone around Jeffrey Epstein knew exactly what he’s up to, and to spend that much time, to give that much trust, to Jeffrey Epstein, and then to say, ‘I don’t remember seeing any young girls. I didn’t hear anything about Jeffrey Epstein,’ it really is just not plausible,” Min said.
Wexner has insisted that he cut ties with Epstein in 2007, before Epstein pleaded guilty to Florida state-level prostitution charges in 2008, and claimed that Epstein “misappropriated” $46m of his assets.
Wexner is among several people with close ties to Epstein to whom Congress has issued subpoenas. Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping traffic teen girls for Epstein, refused to answer questions during her deposition last week.
Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, said in a statement that she invoked her right to remain silent because of her ongoing legal fight against her conviction and claimed Maxwell “is prepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump”.
The oversight committee also subpoenaed Bill and Hillary Clinton, who will sit for closed-door depositions next week. The former president has said publicly that he flew on Epstein’s airplane in the early 2000s for humanitarian work, but insisted he never visited Epstein’s private island.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act, passed by Congress in November of last year, mandated that the justice department release all investigative files into Epstein within 30 days. To date, it has released several tranches of documents, and a sprawling 3.5m page release on 30 January, but transparency advocates have insisted that potentially millions of pages remain undisclosed.
