A federal judge on Thursday ruled that Michael Jeffries, the former chief executive of Abercrombie & Fitch who stands accused of running an international sex trafficking ring, was fit to stand trial after being diagnosed and treated for dementia.
His lawyers had argued that Mr. Jeffries, 82, could not understand the charges against him because of his deteriorating mental state. Yet the judge, Nusrat J. Choudhury of Federal District Court in Central Islip, N.Y., said that Mr. Jeffries had shown “sufficient cognitive functioning in areas relevant to competence.”
He cracked jokes to a doctor who was observing him and remarked on current events — like the election of Mayor Zohran Mamdani — in phone calls from prison, Judge Choudhury wrote in her decision. While being evaluated by doctors at a federal prison, Mr. Jeffries showed an understanding of the sex trafficking charges he was facing.
Mr. Jeffries is slated to go on trial in late October on Long Island. A lawyer for Mr. Jeffries declined to comment.
Mr. Jeffries was widely credited with turning around Abercrombie in the 1990s. But by the time of he left the company in 2014, its reputation had slid amid criticism of the hypersexualized portrayal of its models.
He was indicted in October 2024 on charges of sex trafficking and interstate prostitution. Working with his romantic partner, Matthew C. Smith, and a third man, James Jacobson, Mr. Jeffries lured dozens of men to secret sex parties, offering them modeling jobs in return, according to the indictment.
The men were forced to consume copious amounts of alcohol, drugs and Viagra at the parties, prosecutors said. The allegations resembled those brought in a 2023 lawsuit against Abercrombie, which had been unearthed in a BBC investigation.
In May 2025, Judge Choudhury ruled that Mr. Jeffries was not fit to stand trial and ordered that he be hospitalized to see if his condition, which included a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and Lewy body disease, improved. Last winter, federal prosecutors said that Mr. Jeffries had been “restored” to competency, citing an evaluation from the Bureau of Prisons.
Phone calls between Mr. Jeffries and Mr. Smith showed evidence of Mr. Jeffries’s relatively strong cognition, Judge Chowdhury wrote. The two men discussed Mr. Mamdani’s election, the death of former Vice President Dick Cheney and the announcement of Anna Wintour’s replacement at Vogue.
In addition, Mr. Jeffries discussed how he would secretly transport salt and hot sauce to his meals in prison, exhibiting a sophisticated level of problem solving.
“I feel like James Bond to tell you the truth,” Mr. Jeffries said to Mr. Smith.
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