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The Beat with Ari Melber

Billionaire Les Wexner Testifies About Epstein Ties

The Beat with Ari Melber

Ari Melber, MS NOW

Politics, News, Versant Media, Ms Now, Daily News, Versant, Government

4.64.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 February 2026

⏱️ 41 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

MS NOW's Ari Melber reports on new testimony from billionaire Wes Wexner in the House Epstein investigation.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to the beat. We were reporting right now on new testimony coming out of this House

0:03.5

Epstein probe. The recent Epstein files showed the DOJ had leads on these people in Epstein's

0:10.0

orbit and others redacted. As you see, this was a big, important document that we only got

0:16.1

from the new files, and the DOJ only ultimately prosecuted one, Maxwell. We only know that because Congress

0:23.6

overruled Trump and forced out those files. Now some of the same members of Congress say they are

0:29.6

doing basically some of the investigative work that the DOJ failed to do. And that would stretch back

0:36.0

from the recent Trump administration and the Biden

0:38.7

administration, because these leads, if they mean anything, weren't deeply followed by the DOJ

0:44.8

under successive administrations. That's the background. Here's what's happening today that's new.

0:50.1

The House compelling, a powerful billionaire who's usually behind the scenes, Les Wexner, to go under oath,

0:55.1

to provide answers about his long business history with Epstein. He was interviewed where he lives

1:00.3

in Ohio. Democratic lawmakers led this questioning today. Some Republican staff members were told

1:04.2

also attended. Now, Wexler's a key figure because we already knew Epstein made so much money off of him. This is one example of a photograph

1:15.2

from the Oversight Committee with an individual redacted, again under the reasons we've been told,

1:19.4

but the two men having a drink, hanging out, whatever you see there. Now, Epstein made money

1:24.6

off this man, and we know big sums were also returned.

1:29.2

Now, lawmakers say their evidence shows over a billion dollars cumulatively went from Wexner to Epstein,

1:38.4

and that he's in the files over 1,000 times.

1:40.6

You're looking at one file, one photograph.

1:45.4

There are many, many other references and contacts with him. Now, that billion dollars is part of the fortune that ultimately

1:51.1

propped up Epstein's crime spree. And it's been documented that Wexner back in the day cut ties

1:57.1

with Epstein around his first legal problems in Florida. If you think about some of the people

...

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