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, according to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and was identified as a potential co-conspirator of the pedophile in internal FBI documents in 2019, though he was not charged.
He has 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 said in an opening statement provided to 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 victims who died by suicide in April, named Wexner in a deposition as one of the men she was allegedly trafficked to.
Asked about Giuffre on Wednesday, Wexner claimed he did not know her.
“Ms Giuffre has accused you of, um, performing sexual acts with her multiple times, you dispute these allegations?” Wexner was asked.
“She must be confused,” he responded. “It never happened.”
Wexner also testified Wednesday that he visited Epstein’s private island for “probably an hour” while on a boat with his family and sold the financier his Manhattan townhouse for around $20 million.
The billionaire sold Epstein the Upper East Side home in 1998, according to NBC 4. It was allegedly the site of some of Epstein’s sexual abuse.
Wexner has denied any wrongdoing.
