Transcription
So he he represented their whole families. There have been a whole bunch of people.
He would say like, "I'm I'm providing uh financial advice to the founders of Google. I'm financial providing financial advice to Jeff Bezos. I'm finan providing financial financial advice uh for the chief technologist at Google."
Wow. I'm in good company. Cuz these are really smart guys with a lot of money. And I get a phone call from someone like guy named Marwald. He was the who said he was the chief technology of Google. You know, Jeffrey has been helping me. He's financial advisor. I told Jeffrey I was building a boat. He told me to call you.
>> You claimed that you have been a victim and defrauded by Epstein. Correct.
>> Correct.
>> Then why didn't you file charges, go after him? He used money to hurt girls and probably young men. Why didn't she do anything to recoup your name, which has been synonymous with Epstein? Do you know your name comes up in the emails among victims who never met you, but your name was used consistently?
>> I'm not sure I understand what the question.
>> The question is, why didn't you file any charges against Epstein if you conjure of $200 million that we know of? Why didn't you go after him?
>> Well, at the time I didn't know.
>> And when you found out, why didn't you go after him?
>> Is it because he was a good friend?
>> No.
>> You You had
>> My dad My dad is probably laughing.
>> You know, one of the thing One of the No, no. One of the things my dad told me that you don't get a pissing contest with an elephant and running a public company for a long time. I'm not good at public relations or financial public relations. And so I would answer questions to analysts. I'd call people up and I'd tell them the truth. And what I learned in the course of my business career is whether it was my chief of staff, the company lawyer, personal lawyers, what should I do? And the advice is let us handle it. Don't you don't you don't want to get ahead of this.
>> So I I'm happy that today is happening because I want to help and I would do everything I can to nail that son of a
>> And please let him please just let please let him finish. and and and I can't tell you that how much I value my own ethics, my own moral compass, that it has a true north. And what I think happened now knowing about all the cons is that Jeffrey would tell somebody that that they were me or this was somebody else. Like I don't you and I've never met, right? I don't recognize you, but you're a congresswoman. I think because
>> Yeah. I never met you, but you're all over the emails.
>> Yeah. But so I I presume you're a congresswoman and I presume you're not you're not a man in women's clothing. I don't know what I didn't know. And I understand this is you know now we can do something about it.
>> Oh yeah.
>> So Wexer claims you claimed that you cut ties with Epste in '07, right? Okay. But you emailed Epstein. Quote, "Abigail told me the response. All I can say is I feel sorry. You violated your own number one rule. Always be careful." End of quote. That was an email in 2008. Mr. Rexner.
>> I know. I'm letting you know that the public knows.
>> Probably. I was giving him the finger.
>> Director, real briefly, uh, did the FBI or Department of Justice ever directly speak to you about Epstein or Maxwell? Has the FBI or DOJ ever directly contacted you or spoken to you about about an episode?
>> Not to my knowledge.
>> Never.
>> Ever.
>> And then finally, um would you consider Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein friends or friendly? Would you classify them that way in the information that you have?
>> I think it's really two questions. Would I think they were friends? No. Jeffrey Epstein held him out as a friend.
>> Great. Thank you.
>> We can go off the record.
>> We'll go back on the record.
>> What's that?
>> Uh that is a microphone.
>> Um Mr. Wexner, it is 117 in the afternoon. Um our minority colleagues touched on a lot of different subject areas and I just want to go back through and parse out some things. Um first though I want to enter as exhibit five the um letter from less One more. This document is titled letter from less um general news directed to the Wexner Foundation community. Um I will stipulate to you there's no date on here. The date it was posted on the website was August 8th, 2019. Do you guys have any reason to dispute that? um in this letter that you wrote um in August of 2019, you mentioned that you had uh that Mr. Epstein had various well-known respected individuals as financial clients and in his inner circle. Uh my question to you is could you elaborate a little bit to who who some of those financial clients were that you were aware of?
>> Well, to just it says he rep Epstein represented that he had that. He wouldn't know if he did or not.
>> Were you aware of any of Mr. Epste's other clients?
>> Let me think. Well, specifically I talked to Ellie D. Rothschild and so I mentioned that earlier. Uh so he he represented their whole family. So there have been a whole bunch of people many most of whom I never would have met but I knew LA. Um, I never met people, but there were people that called me that either insinuated or said they were knew Jeffrey through a financial relationship. And so I mean they could have been actors but in the time I a guy calls me up. I'll give you an example just it's just no because I want you to understand this because it's it's so confusing to me. He would say like, "I'm I'm providing uh financial advice to the founders of Google. I'm financial providing financial advice to Jeff Bezos. I'm finan providing financial financial advice uh for the chief technologist at Google." And I wow I'm in good company because these are really smart guys with a lot of money and you have to put yourself in the mindset of you you if my at my attorney said you know he was qualified to argue in front of the Supreme Court I'd believe him. I didn't say to call the Supreme Court and say tell me is he really an attorney or did he do this and I get a phone call from someone like a guy named Meerwalt he was the who said he was the chief technology of Google you know Jeffrey has been helping me he's financial adviser I told Jeffrey I was building a boat he told me to call you I had never built a boat but because I hadn't but if I wanted to build a boat I would go to Fedship because reputationally they're the best boat builders then you know it it was and that's the the part that is so embarrassing is what economy was and if you it I don't know you believe your your priest or your minister your rabbi is what they are you believe them and people would it was mostly phone calls of people would say or if you'd bump into some yeah Jeffrey's my advisor or Jeffrey's talked to me about stuff or Jeff helped me with financial things. I can't remember specifically, but as I look back at it, it was part of the con. So, I never met Meervald.
Can >> have one second because I think it will move this thing along a little faster.
>> Tell him stop.
>> Okay.
>> Just answer the question.
>> Um, Mr. Wexner,
>> you mentioned some of these uh phone calls from other individuals, you know, boasting about their ties with Mr. Epstein. Do you have a recollection of when most of these would have occurred, these phone calls?
>> Pretty regularly, but I specifically can't remember any of them.
>> Understood. Um in majority exhibit uh three, your statement from this morning, your written statement from this morning. Um, you mentioned on the second page, I believe it is, second paragraph, approximately middle of the paragraph, that you consulted Ace Greenberg and Jimmy Kaine of Bear Sterns, Epstein's former employer. Did I read that correctly?
>> Correct.
>> Um, what did you reach out to Mr. Greenberg and Mr. Kane about at Bear Sterns with regard to Mr. Epstein?
>> checking references.
>> And um as far as checking those references, did uh did anything come up surprising to you about Mr. Epstein's background?
>> All positive.
>> And um you also mentioned, let me take a step back. Uh Mayor Sterns has has mentioned and previously reported that Mr. Epstein didn't have a degree or some of the proper qualifications for his job there. Did you have any reason to doubt the qualifications of Mr. Epstein when it related to being your financial adviser?
>> I don't recall any question that that is he had a degree. I don't remember asking the question.
>> And so going off of that, other than making some phone calls to some individuals, did you ever formally check into Mr. Epstein's past
>> not beyond um talking to um the people I mentioned.
>> Understood. Um you also state going sorry to jump back and forth the letter from last exhibit 5 that same paragraph um the the third one in the middle there. The last sentence after the comma says I believed I could trust him. What about him being Mr. Epstein did you did he do that you thought you could trust him?
>> Well, I put him in a position of trust. He was a fiduciary that was to act in my interest and I trusted that he could do that.
>> And you your trust in him came before he actually handled any of your uh finances. Is that correct?
>> Correct. Is it initially he was like a friend of a friend who I perceived of as being skilled to review Errol's work.
>> Understood. Um moving along a little bit. You may have touched on this with our minority colleagues. What was the rough portfolio that Mr. Epste was handling for you?
>> Probably all my personal finance, houses, equipment, cars, just inventorying of stuff. This the stuff, I don't know, all the financial things that someone would handle outside of their business. Uh, I have someone do cuz it was so much stuff.
>> And um, your pre your the financial adviser previous to Mr. Epstein. Did that individual have power of attorney?
>> I don't specifically remember it, but I think he did.
>> And Mr. Epstein did have power of attorney over your financial matters.
>> Yeah. As did Dennis.
>> And um why did this become your practice to give them power of attorney?
>> But so busy traveling so much. The papers had to be signed, tax returns filed, people had to act on my behalf. So many things to sign you. I needed to have somebody to do that.
>> Understood. How involved were you um with Mr. Epstein's determinations over your finances? Did you have any involvement?
>> I'm confused about what determinations mean?
>> Uh more of like a Did you have any oversight of what Mr. Epstein was doing as your financial adviser?
>> Well, I'm sure he did at the time. Yeah.
>> And did he bring every decision to you, some decisions to you? What did that look like?
>> I don't know. I was running a 20 division business. Had community responsibility. So if you ask me what the president of the university brought to me or what the head of the foundation, I can't remember. But I was involved in everything except just a lot of stuff.