Les Wexner speaks during a deposition about Jeffrey Epstein.
Courtesy: GOP Oversight via YouTube
Jeffrey Epstein would “name drop” President Donald Trump as one of the many high-profile people he claimed to know, billionaire retail magnate Leslie Wexner said this week in a congressional deposition about the notorious sex offender.
The 88-year-old Wexner, who was one of Epstein’s top clients and benefactors, said Epstein “held [Trump] out as a friend,” according to a video of the deposition that House Democrats released Thursday.
But Wexner, the retired founder of Victoria’s Secret ex-parent L Brands, said he did not believe Trump and Epstein were actually friends. And he denied seeing or hearing anything about Trump having a sexual relationship with someone introduced to him by Epstein or his convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
He also told lawmakers that both Trump and Epstein would sometimes be at the lingerie company’s fashion shows — though he suggested it was a “coincidence” and that he can’t recall “something … that would put them together.”
“I remember because Trump would always introduce himself to me, and I always thought it was kind of odd that he was at the fashion show because he had nothing to do with fashion,” Wexner said.
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The deposition occurred as the Department of Justice’s recent release of millions of additional Epstein-related files raises new questions about the late sex criminal’s ties to a growing list of prominent figures.
Video of the nearly five-hour deposition, conducted Wednesday in New Albany, Ohio, where Wexner lives, was shared on the YouTube account for the House Oversight Committee’s Republican majority.
Democrats on the Oversight panel, who had traveled to Ohio for the deposition, said that no Republican committee members attended.
They also expressed skepticism about Wexner’s insistence that he had virtually no social life with Epstein, and they vowed to continue investigating.
“I do not believe when Mr. Wexner says that he did not have a personal relationship or a friendly relationship” with Epstein, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the panel’s ranking member, told reporters Wednesday.
Asked if he had a relationship with Trump, Wexner laughed and said he did not. Despite their occasional exchanges at the fashion shows, “we didn’t know each other,” Wexner said. “I’d be shocked if he remembered me.”
Trump has never discussed Epstein with Wexner, he said.
But when asked if Epstein ever discussed Trump with him, Wexner paused and then said, “I would describe it — he would name drop it.”
“So he would say things like, ‘I know [former President Bill] Clinton or I know the Pope or I know God… It was that kind of name dropping, but never, I can’t remember [a] specific place, but Jeffrey dropped a lot of names.”
Asked to clarify that Epstein specifically referenced Trump, Wexner seemed to backtrack. “No, I’m saying it could have and I don’t remember,” he said.
Wexner also said Epstein never shared any information with him about Trump’s sexual activities.
The comments revealed from the deposition video align with the prepared statement Wexner gave the committee, in which he claimed he was “duped” and “conned” by Epstein but was uninvolved with, and ignorant of, any of his criminal activities.
Wexner in the deposition also denied ever meeting prominent Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre in Epstein’s presence. Giuffre has claimed that Wexner sexually abused her.
Wexner, in his prepared statement, said he has never been unfaithful to his wife in 33 years of marriage.