Victoria’s Secret billionaire Les Wexner was scolded by his attorney for speaking too much while lawmakers questioned him about his entanglement with Jeffrey Epstein.
Wexner, 88, who entrusted Epstein to oversee significant portions of his fortune for over a decade, testified to the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, answering questions with long-winded ramblings.
His meandering responses appear to have frayed the nerves of his attorney, who finally grabbed Wexner’s shoulders, leaned in, and whispered a warning towards the end of the more than four-hour-long deposition.
“I will f—ing kill you if you answer another question with more than five words, OK?” Michael Levy said into Wexner’s ear.
Wexner flashed an awkward grin before letting out a weak laugh and raising his hand in a sheepish shrug.
“Answer the question,” Levy, who worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in D.C. during the 1990s, urged.
“OK,” Wexner replied.
Next, the retail mogul was asked by a congressman whether he had any knowledge of or involvement in the reported friendship-ending feud between Epstein and Donald Trump over a Palm Beach real estate deal.
Under Levy’s watchful stare, Wexner answered, “No.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Levy for comment.
Wexner, who is worth $10.9 billion, appears thousands of times in the Epstein files and was identified as a potential co-conspirator of the pedophile in internal FBI documents in 2019, though he was not charged.
He denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and claimed that he had been “duped” by the disgraced financier, to whom he granted power of attorney over his finances in 1991.
“I was naive, foolish, and gullible to put any trust in Jeffrey Epstein,” Wexner told lawmakers, who subpoenaed him as part of their investigation into the government’s handling of the Epstein case. “At no time did I ever witness the side of Epstein’s life for which he is now infamous.”
Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers who died by suicide in April, named Wexner in a deposition as one of the men she was trafficked to.
Emily Michot/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Asked about the accusation on Thursday, Wexner claimed he was unfamiliar with Giuffre’s name.
“She must be confused. It never happened,” he said. Wexner has denied any wrongdoing.
Another accuser, Maria Farmer, said she was assaulted by Ghislaine Maxwell and Epstein while staying on Wexner’s estate in the 1990s. She claimed that his security officers “held her against her will at the property…for 12 hours after her alleged assault.” Wexner has denied any knowledge of the incident.
The billionaire let Epstein live in his Manhattan mansion in the 1990s and sold it to him in 1998, according to NBC 4. The Upper East Side townhouse was allegedly the site of some of Epstein’s sexual abuse.
But Wexner testified Wednesday that he had never flown on Epstein’s plane, visited Epstein’s private island only briefly while on a cruise with his family, and sold him his townhouse for a reasonable price.
Even after Epstein was charged with soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2006, Wexner did not immediately cut ties.
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