Les Wexner in a partially redacted photograph released by the Department of Justice. Credit: Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Justice
Recently released federal documents include Les Wexner among a list of suspected co-conspirators of convicted sex-trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein.
Following pressure from Representatives Ro Khanna, D-California, and Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, the U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday released the names in documents in which they had been redacted.
Wexner, founder L Brands and chairman of the Wexner Medical Center Board, was among nine suspected co-conspirators in an Aug. 15, 2019 FBI document compiled in the days after Epstein died by suicide in his New York jail cell on Aug. 10, 2019.
According to Khanna and Massie, there may be more names of co-conspirators that remain redacted.
“We have just unredacted Les Wexner’s name from this document, but his name already appears in the files thousands of times. [The] DOJ is hiding nothing,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said to Khanna and Massie on X.
In a letter to his foundation dated Aug. 8, 2019, Wexner condemned Epstein’s “abhorrent behavior in the strongest possible terms” and said that he was “sickened by the revelations [he] have read over the past weeks.”
Wexner has long-denied any claims of knowledge or wrongdoing, a legal representative for Mr. Wexner told The Lantern.
“The Assistant U.S. Attorney told Mr. Wexner’s legal counsel in 2019 that Mr. Wexner 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,” he said.
Epstein was Wexner’s financial advisor dating back to the 1980s, with Wexner handing Epstein full reign to his finances, property and power of attorney in the early 1990s, according to prior Lantern reporting.
In the same letter, Wexner wrote that he ended all communications with Epstein by “early fall” 2007. Documents released in December show that the two had communicated as late as June 2008, according to prior Lantern reporting.
