The House Oversight Committee on Wednesday approved more subpoenas related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The panel voted to subpoena billionaire Les Wexner over his ties to Epstein and approved subpoenas for the co-executors of Epstein’s estate: attorney Darren Indyke and accountant Richard Kahn.
Wexner, the former CEO of Victoria’s Secret, had a lengthy relationship with Epstein dating to the 1980s and hired him to manage his personal finances.
In a 2019 letter to his Wexner Foundation, Wexner said he cut ties with Epstein after Epstein was accused of sexually abusing minors in Florida. After they parted ways, “we discovered that he had misappropriated vast sums of money from me and my family,” Wexner said. “I deeply regret having ever crossed his path,” he added.
A spokesman for Wexner, Tom Davies, said in a statement to NBC News that “According to Mr. Wexner’s legal representative, Mr. Wexner will cooperate fully with any governmental inquiry into Epstein, just as he did regarding the U.S. Attorney’s investigation into Epstein.”
Wexner’s name was mentioned in a 2019 FBI email about possible co-conspirators that was made public as part of the ongoing release of Epstein files by the Justice Department. A representative for Wexner previously told The Columbus Dispatch newspaper in Ohio that prosecutors informed Wexner’s attorney at the time that he was “neither a co-conspirator nor target in any respect” to the investigation.
"According to Mr. Wexner's legal representative, will cooperate fully with any governmental inquiry into Epstein, just as he did regarding the U.S. Attorney's investigation into Epstein," said Tom Davies, a spokesman for Wexner.
The House Oversight Committee has already received thousands of records from Epstein’s estate under a congressional subpoena as part of its own investigation. It also subpoenaed former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in addition to former Justice Department officials.
Daniel Weiner, an attorney for the Epstein estate, as well as Indyke and Kahn, said in an email Wednesday evening that the co-executors complied with the previous subpoena to provide records and “fully intend to continue their cooperation with the Committee, including its efforts to investigate potential government wrongdoing regarding Mr. Epstein, and look forward to setting the record straight as to their lack of involvement in Mr. Epstein’s misconduct.”
He added that Indyke and Kahn “did not socialize with Mr. Epstein, and they have always rejected as categorically false any suggestion that they knowingly facilitated or assisted Mr. Epstein in his sexual abuse or trafficking of women, or that they were aware of Mr. Epstein’s actions while they provided legal and accounting services to Mr. Epstein.”
The subpoenas approved Wednesday still need to be drawn up, typically with a proposed date for testimony, and signed by committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., before they can be sent.
