Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) cast doubt on the credibility of billionaire Les Wexner, who testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday about his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Ansari, a member of the committee, told host Kaitlan Collins on CNN’s “The Source” that she went into the deposition with an “earnest attempt to ask questions and was hoping to get as many substantive answers as possible” from Wexner.
Epstein was Wexner’s financial manager for roughly two decades, though he denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes on Wednesday. The founder of Bath & Body Works and former CEO of Victoria’s Secret told the panel that Epstein lived a “double life,” and he regretted knowing the “clever, diabolical … master manipulator.”
The Arizona Democrat said it was “hard to believe him” based on the questions asked and the responses given.
Wexner testified from his estate in New Albany, Ohio, with multiple Oversight Democrats traveling to the Buckeye State to attend the deposition in person.
An FBI memo from August 2019 released by the Justice Department (DOJ) earlier this month lists Wexner as a potential Epstein co-conspirator. The memo was compiled days after Epstein, who was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, died in prison by what authorities have ruled a suicide.
A lawyer for Wexner told The New York Times in December that the 88-year-old was not the target of a federal investigation or considered an accomplice. Ansari on Wednesday said she was “shocked” to hear that he had not been questioned by the DOJ or the FBI.
“When you think of Jeffrey Epstein, you think of Les Wexner,” the lawmaker said. “There’s no name that I have heard more from the victims, after I hear about Ghislaine [Maxwell] and Jeffrey himself, than Les Wexner, because they say, ‘Follow the money.'”
Ansari also told CNN that when she asked Wexner whether he was friends with Epstein, he replied, “No.” She added that Wexner could not recall why he trusted Epstein with his money.
“Then we‘d ask him questions about, why he trusted [Epstein] with so much money, despite it being reported that many of his close advisers at the time advised against it,” she continued. “He said he didn‘t remember.”
The lawmaker added, “So because of that very basic question, not receiving a response that I felt was believable, it was hard to trust everything else that was brought up during today‘s deposition.”
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