Leslie H. Wexner, the billionaire retail magnate, accused House Democrats of turning his February deposition about Jeffrey E. Epstein into a “photo op,” saying in a Wednesday interview with The Crimson that lawmakers appeared more interested in the politics of the session than in questioning him.

Wexner, one of Epstein’s most prominent clients, sat for a nearly six-hour deposition in New Albany, Ohio, as part of the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. The committee released video of the deposition the next day.

“I didn’t know anything, I wasn’t guilty,” Wexner said. “I was very happy to give the statement and the deposition to end it all.”

But Wexner said the session quickly became political theater, calling the deposition “silly” and “a nothing burger.”

“Essentially the whole thing was airtime, getting on a video — say they did it,” Wexner said. “I don’t think 10 minutes of the questions — 10 questions or 10 minutes of questions — were asked by Congress members. It was a photo op.”

Wexner said he was disappointed in the politicization of the Epstein investigation and told The Crimson that representatives appeared to lose interest behind closed doors.

Wexner said one female member of Congress looked at her phone during the deposition, then left the room roughly 10 minutes into questioning. Wexner said he initially thought she was leaving to find a bathroom, but later learned she had gone to a nearby pizza shop for a press conference.

“She got up, and she went about a mile away to a neighborhood pizza place, and had a press conference, and never came back,” Wexner said.

Wexner did not identify the lawmaker by name. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the committee’s ranking Democrat, attended the deposition with Reps. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ), Stephen F. Lynch (D-MA), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Dave Min (D-CA).

Wexner appeared to be referencing Ansari, who did hits for CNN and MS Now in the middle of the deposition. She also filmed a video update for Courier, a progressive social media news outlet.

In a statement after this article’s publication, a spokesperson for Ansari said the congresswoman “was in the deposition for hours — the entire morning and most of the afternoon, at least.”

Crockett is audible in the recording of the deposition asking a question of Wexner nearly two hours in.

The other Democratic lawmakers who attended the deposition joined Ansari for a press conference. They told reporters that they were not entirely convinced of Wexner’s innocence, saying they struggled to believe someone so entangled with Epstein could have been oblivious to his illegal activity. (Tlaib was not present at the press conference.)

Lingering questions about Epstein — and sustained public outcry over the federal government’s handling of records related to his crimes — have been a weak spot for the Trump administration and a focus for congressional Democrats.

Progressive lawmakers have repeatedly accused the Department of Justice of withholding records and failing to fully account for Epstein’s relationships with powerful figures.

Wexner, for his part, has long denied he knew anything about Epstein’s criminal behavior. On Wednesday, he repeated those claims and said Epstein had deceived him, casting himself as a victim of the financier’s fraud.

“Everybody, I’m sure, hired somebody, or knew somebody that they wish they’d never met, and in this case it was very painful financially — and then because of his social habits or peculiarities, which I never saw,” he said.

Wexner also pointed to a question about his campaign contributions to U.S. Sen Jon Husted (R-OH) as evidence that lawmakers were seeking political fodder.

The soundbite was later used by Husted’s opponent in his upcoming Senate race, former Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, to tie Husted to Epstein’s circle. Wexner suggested he believed the question had been a setup.

“My friend said ‘They asked you that specific question because they wanted it for a commercial,’” he said. “They wanted to get it because they were going to use it in a campaign commercial, which Sherrod Brown is using.”

Brown campaign spokesperson Lauren Chou pointed to more than $116,000 Wexner had donated to Husted’s campaign in a Thursday statement.

“Just last year Husted took a maximum donation from Epstein’s co-conspirator and weeks later voted to block the release of the Epstein files,” Chou wrote. “The record is clear.”

Wexner said the skepticism from lawmakers was unfair and maintained that committee staff already “knew most of the answers” to their questions.

The committee’s Epstein investigation has continued to draw in Harvard affiliates. Last week, House Oversight Chair James R. Comer (R-Ky.) asked former Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz to appear for a videotaped interview in Washington, D.C. on July 9 about his knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activities.

Earlier that week, Garcia called for former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers to also appear before the committee. Summers, whose extensive personal and academic ties have come under intense scrutiny since the release of emails and records last fall, declined to comment through a spokesperson on the letter.

Wexner said he had nothing to hide and no fear of being questioned under oath.

“There was no question that I was afraid they were going to ask, because there was no question that I could be afraid of, because I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said.

Wexner also said he was unlikely to testify before Congress again.

“It’s one and done,” he said. “I thought it was just silly.”

—Staff writer Hugo C. Chiasson can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at hcc.35. Follow him on X @HugoChiassonn.

—Staff writer Elise A. Spenner can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at elisespenner.82. Follow her on X @EliseSpenner.