NEW ALBANY, Ohio — Across the time he started taking monetary recommendation from Jeffrey Epstein, Ohio’s richest man made a fateful funding.
It was 1990, and Leslie Wexner, whose retail clothes empire included manufacturers like Abercrombie & Fitch and Victoria’s Secret, put $100,000 behind Republican George Voinovich’s profitable marketing campaign for governor.
The contributions opened doorways that Wexner had typically struggled to stroll via whereas making an attempt to translate his philanthropy and success in enterprise into civic and political energy in his house state.
Aided by his new associates within the Voinovich administration, Wexner developed this once-small city into an exurban enclave round his mansion. Helped alongside by a state-funded freeway interchange, he constructed an upscale Columbus shopping center anchored by his shops.
“George used to say, ‘We have to do extra with much less,’” stated a longtime Republican operative and Voinovich ally, recalling the late governor’s status for frugality. “We used to say that was a double entendre: ‘Do extra for Les.’”
Wexner’s relationship with Voinovich additionally planted the seeds for a coalition of CEOs that’s credited with shedding Columbus’ picture as a Midwestern backwater. In the meantime, Wexner continued his charitable giving towards pro-Jewish causes, schooling and different public coverage areas — including to a legacy that put his identify on a hospital, artwork gallery and soccer coaching complicated at his alma mater, Ohio State College.
However that legacy is now in jeopardy, given Wexner’s affiliation with Epstein, the late intercourse offender who in 2019 was discovered useless in his jail cell whereas awaiting trial on federal intercourse trafficking fees. The specter of Epstein hovers over Columbus and particularly close by New Albany, the place, information present, Epstein owned property and had a senior position in Wexner’s growth agency within the Nineteen Nineties. Epstein, within the phrases of his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell throughout a Justice Division interview final yr, “ran New Albany.”
“I actually imagine this man [Wexner] did 50 years of fantastic stuff for Columbus,” stated a GOP strategist, who, like most of the 20 individuals who spoke with NBC Information, was granted anonymity to share candid assessments of Wexner. “Should you’d have stated in 2014 that in 12 years we might be right here, I’d have stated you had been f—–g loopy.”
The fallout has engulfed not solely Wexner, but in addition his allies and admirers in Columbus and the group he made right here, basically, from scratch greater than 30 years in the past. Members of the Home Oversight Committee investigating Epstein traveled to New Albany this week to depose him. There are also calls to pry Wexner’s identify off the buildings at Ohio State, the place he served two stints as a trustee. And in latest days, politicians who as soon as accepted Wexner’s money for his or her campaigns for Congress all the best way all the way down to the Columbus Metropolis Council have scrambled to distance themselves.
“He was one of many metropolis elders of Columbus,” stated one other longtime Republican strategist within the state. “He formed the way forward for town for the higher, there’s little question. However whenever you discuss legacy, individuals are likely to overlook that due to the extra salacious stuff.”
Wexner, 88, has stated he met Epstein within the mid-Nineteen Eighties and finally employed him to handle his cash. He additionally has stated he lower ties with Epstein in 2007, after Epstein was accused of sexually abusing minors in Florida. Round that point, Wexner wrote in a letter issued by his basis in 2019, “we found that he had misappropriated huge sums of cash from me and my household.”
Wexner additionally has denied any data of an allegation made by Epstein survivor Maria Farmer, who stated in a 2020 lawsuit towards the Epstein property that she was assaulted in 1996 by Epstein at an Ohio property “owned and secured” by Wexner and his spouse, Abigail Wexner.
“I used to be naïve, silly, and gullible to place any belief in Jeffrey Epstein,” Wexner stated in a press release submitted to the Home Oversight Committee at his deposition Wednesday. “He was a con man. And whereas I used to be conned, I’ve performed nothing incorrect and don’t have anything to cover. I utterly and irrevocably lower ties with Epstein almost twenty years in the past once I discovered that he was an abuser, a criminal, and a liar. And, let me be crystal clear: I by no means witnessed nor had any data of Epstein’s prison exercise. I used to be by no means a participant nor coconspirator in any of Epstein’s unlawful actions.”
Scrutiny of Wexner’s relationship with Epstein has intensified within the months since Congress required that the Justice Division launch Epstein-related information. Wexner was referred to as an Epstein co-conspirator in a 2019 FBI doc launched final week and talked about as a attainable co-conspirator in a beforehand launched FBI e mail from that very same yr. A Wexner authorized consultant has stated that Wexner had been knowledgeable in 2019 by an assistant U.S. legal professional that he was “neither a co-conspirator nor goal the least bit.”
As new particulars have emerged, politicians throughout the state have been underneath strain to rid their campaigns of the cash Wexner gave them.
Rep. Joyce Beatty, one of many few Democrats outdoors of Columbus metropolis authorities to whom Wexner had donated with regularity, final week stated she redirected all contributions acquired from him to teams that help victims of intercourse trafficking and abuse.
“If he participated in or enabled these crimes, he have to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the legislation,” stated Beatty, whose district contains Wexner’s house.
State Treasurer Robert Sprague, a Republican candidate for Ohio secretary of state this yr, despatched a donation matching the $23,000 that Wexner and his spouse had given to him in 2022 to an area housing companies group. Dalton Throckmorton, Sprague’s marketing campaign supervisor, cited “the more and more disturbing stories regarding Les Wexner.”
In the meantime, Wexner cash is destined to be an assault line in Ohio’s intently watched Senate race. Sen. Jon Husted, the Republican who was appointed to the seat final yr, acquired a $3,500 contribution from Wexner in July. Husted’s earlier campaigns for state workplace acquired tens of hundreds of Wexner’s {dollars}.
“Ohioans should know why Husted selected to guard a pedophile and his billionaire donor as an alternative of standing with the victims,” former Sen. Sherrod Brown, the Democrat working towards Husted this yr, stated in a press release that referenced Husted’s vote final September towards releasing the Epstein information.
A Brown marketing campaign consultant stated Brown has by no means taken cash from Wexner.
Husted, who later joined a unanimous Senate vote to launch the information, “has directed the marketing campaign to donate Wexner’s cash to charity,” stated his Senate marketing campaign spokesperson, Tyson Shepard, who didn’t have details about whether or not that features cash from Husted’s state account, which final month reported a steadiness of greater than $6 million.
Others have declined to relinquish Wexner cash. Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican who acquired $3,500 from Wexner in June, didn’t solicit the donation and has no plans to return it or redirect it to charity, an individual aware of his marketing campaign stated.
Moreno, a former automobile supplier who was elected in 2024, is the uncommon newcomer to Ohio politics who has acquired cash from Wexner whereas aligning himself tightly with President Donald Trump.
Not one of the greater than $4.3 million that Wexner has contributed to federal campaigns and committees since 1980 has gone to Trump, in line with Federal Election Fee filings. Wexner additionally has by no means donated to Vice President JD Vance, who in 2022 gained a Senate seat in Ohio with Trump’s endorsement, or to businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, the Trump-backed candidate for Ohio governor this yr, FEC and state marketing campaign finance information present.
Wexner, a Trump critic, introduced that he was not a Republican in 2018, the yr earlier than his Epstein ties filtered again into public. His contributions to GOP candidates slowed — however they didn’t finish. Some youthful operatives picked up on how Wexner’s giving was at occasions offset by donations from his spouse, a beneficiant contributor to Democrats. They usually started to marvel if Wexner’s cash was extra hassle than it was price.
“As soon as Wexner left the get together and went By no means Trump, individuals actually cooled on him,” a former Republican state lawmaker stated. “And then you definitely had the Epstein stuff.”
‘Les the mess’
It’s a must to return almost 40 years to search out the final time Wexner resembled something remotely near an outsider in Ohio.
The Restricted — his attire chain that finally would develop to incorporate Bathtub & Physique Works and different family names — made him a frequent topic on the enterprise pages and put him on the quilt of New York Journal in 1985. However the elites in Columbus had been nonetheless attempting to determine him out, and Wexner puzzled over tips on how to work his manner into their circles.
A Boston Globe profile in 1989 referred to him as a “Jewish Rockefeller” whereas quoting an unidentified individual “pleasant with Wexner” who noticed that he had “not discovered to be a group participant.” He was identified “affectionately,” this individual added, as “Les the mess.”
Wexner might have decamped to New York, the place a lot of his enterprise was performed. However doing so would make him “one in every of many,” noticed one other longtime GOP operative aware of Wexner’s political and philanthropic work.
“He’s mainly a shy individual and that most likely intimidated him,” this individual added. “Staying in Ohio, and Columbus particularly, allowed him to have a a lot better — and constructive — impression and in addition be the largest fish, albeit in a a lot smaller pond.”
Politics grew to become his gateway. Within the ’80s, Wexner had backed two of Ohio’s most distinguished Democrats: Gov. Dick Celeste and Sen. John Glenn. And whereas Wexner was doing simply nice for himself — he had cracked the inaugural Forbes 400 checklist of richest People in 1982 — the Republican Voinovich would assist usher in his Columbus Renaissance.
A former mayor of Cleveland, Voinovich inspired Wexner to change into extra civically engaged by connecting him with a bunch of upstate enterprise executives generally known as Cleveland Tomorrow, Wexner recalled in a 2015 interview with Columbus CEO. Their group grew to become a mannequin for Wexner as he labored with others to launch the Columbus Partnership, which since 2002 has been a key participant within the area’s progress.
Voinovich additionally smoothed the best way for Easton, the high-end life-style middle that Wexner had dreamed up as a showcase for his shops. With Wexner’s firm chipping in a reported $18 million in money and land, the state backed building of a $235 million freeway interchange that results in the mall, which opened in 1999.
A metropolis rises out of nowhere
New Albany was the opposite endeavor that ratified Wexner’s standing as an Ohio energy dealer — in some methods extra so than the rest he achieved.
When he started drawing up the plans, it was a rural village of barely 1,000 individuals. At the moment it’s a totally shaped suburb with a inhabitants of greater than 11,000 dwelling in neighborhoods of Georgian-style redbrick houses tucked behind gleaming white picket fences. Wexner’s unfold — valued at almost $50 million, in line with county property information — hulks alongside a rustic street, with a gated entry constructed right into a hollowed-out white barn.
Abercrombie & Fitch, which The Restricted spun off in 1998, stays headquartered right here. Meta, the father or mother firm of Fb, has a knowledge middle close by. And Intel is at work on a large semiconductor manufacturing unit, although the challenge has been delayed.
So many of those developments hint again to Wexner’s jump-start in the course of the Voinovich years, with the administration, as it might do for Easton, funding infrastructure enhancements. A number of operatives from these days recalled Wexner’s all-out effort to safe a liquor license for the nation membership that might anchor a brand new housing growth.
After voters rejected the allow, lobbyists engaged on Wexner’s behalf — and with a prime Voinovich aide’s help, The Columbus Dispatch reported — quietly drafted laws that might have expedited a brand new vote on the difficulty. Voinovich vetoed the measure after the native newspaper uncovered how it might profit one in every of his prime donors. However Wexner shortly discovered one other loophole: By opening a microbrewery on the nation membership, he was capable of receive a liquor license permitting the sale of different alcoholic drinks.
In a written assertion to NBC Information, New Albany Mayor Sloan Spalding praised Wexner and his growth agency for town’s “cautious planning” and “progress.”
“The New Albany Firm, established by Les Wexner, has been a key determine on this journey, vastly influencing early metropolis growth and infrastructure with its management and assets,” stated Spalding, who was elected in 2015. “Mr. Wexner’s imaginative and prescient for a thoughtfully designed and distinctive group is mirrored in what New Albany has change into right now.”
A ‘Wizard of Oz’ character
When a term-limited Voinovich moved on to the Senate, Wexner remained politically engaged at excessive ranges. He briefly jumped again throughout the aisle in 2005 to help the early days of then-Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman’s marketing campaign for governor. However Coleman dropped out earlier than the Democratic main and Wexner stored a decrease profile within the following yr’s normal election — the final time a Republican misplaced a race for governor in Ohio.
Wexner additionally was gradual to heat to Republican John Kasich’s bid for governor in 2010, 4 operatives concerned with that marketing campaign recalled. He sought to make good after Kasich gained, presenting him with a 5-foot pencil inscribed with a Wexner mantra: “Hold the primary factor the primary factor.”
“It was some type of symbolic gesture, like, ‘You’re in cost now,’” an individual who witnessed the assembly stated. “I recall deciphering it as a gentle, humoristic mea culpa.”
Kasich and Wexner finally discovered frequent trigger, each throughout Kasich’s two phrases as governor and of their mutual disgust with Trump’s takeover of the Republican Celebration. In 2023, Wexner gave $100,000 to the political motion committee that Kasich and his group stored alive after his unsuccessful run for president seven years earlier. Kasich didn’t reply to questions concerning the donation.
In the meantime, youthful Republican operatives in Ohio deal with Wexner as a curiosity and describe him as one thing of an anachronism whose affect is nonetheless nonetheless felt.
“I’ve by no means even seen Wexner, a lot much less met him,” stated one one who has labored for among the state’s prime Republicans since 2016. “Sort of a ‘Wizard of Oz’ character.”
These are removed from the times of “Extra for Les.” Wexner stepped down as CEO of L Manufacturers, the outgrowth of his Restricted empire, in 2020 as Victoria’s Secret and Bathtub & Physique Works break up off into separate firms and early whiffs of the Epstein scandal swirled round him. He resigned as chair of the Columbus Partnership a yr later.
“I actually don’t understand how usually he’s right here,” stated a Columbus-area group chief who praised Wexner’s efforts with the Partnership. “I don’t know the place he’s bodily. I’ve heard every kind of issues. I don’t know what’s true, what’s not true.”
The unknowns weigh on these dismayed by Wexner’s downfall. Whereas some stated it’s onerous for them to sq. the person they know with the implications of the Epstein investigations, additionally they fear new revelations might additional tarnish Wexner and embarrass the area.
“With some individuals, significantly outdoors of Columbus, it’s all they’re going to know,” the group chief stated. “It’s drip, drip, drip, drip, drip of guilt by affiliation. It might be onerous for anyone to really clarify the character of the connection and even perceive it. I don’t know that anyone does.”
