From Leslie, with love

Leslie Wexner remained an active political donor to Ohio Republicans and Columbus Democrats in the immediate years following revelations about his decades-long friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Leslie Wexner appears twice in Jeffrey Epstein’s now infamous 50th birthday book.

It only took House Oversight Committee Democrats subpoenaing Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, but we finally have our first public picture of the dead pedophile and his longtime, deep and personal friend Leslie Wexner.

I feel like I haven’t seen Wexner that happy before or since.

The subpoena response also included a copy of the personalized birthday card that Wexner sent Epstein, as originally reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The Journal has the complete birthday book, but the central theme is that these were very rich perverts who reveled in their sexual sadism being above the law.

And honestly, who can blame them when two of the book’s chief contributors, Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, became presidents of the United States?

A page from Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday collection, which includes personalized letters from Leslie Wexner and Donald Trump.

We now have irrefutable proof that when Wexner was 66 years old, he knew that Epstein was an incorrigible and insatiable pervert. The only way it would be more blatant would be if the note ended with Wexner admitting how much he enjoyed doing pedophilia with the financier.

And it’s worth noting that Wexner wrote that birthday wish to Epstein in 2003—three years before, in Wexner’s telling of events, he claims he cut all ties with Epstein after he realized he had been duped.

And maybe that narrative would hold water if this letter were the only thing we knew about Wexner and Epstein. But the New York Times published its famous exposé in 2019.

Hulu released Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons, a three-part documentary series detailing Wexner and Epstein’s bizarre friendship, in 2022.

Wexner is a longtime political donor, mainly to Republican causes. But even looking at donations since 2022, he’s given money to:

• Governor Mike DeWine

• Auditor Keith Faber

• Secretary of State Frank LaRose

• Attorney General Dave Yost

• Supreme Court Justice Pat DeWine

• Congressman Mike Carey

• Congressman Troy Balderson

• Ohio House Republican Alliance

• House Finance Chairman Brian Stewart

• Former State Senator Matt Dolan

• Ohio Chamber of Commerce Vice President Rick Carfagna

And on the Democratic side:

• Columbus Mayor Andy Ginther

• Congresswoman Joyce Beatty

• Council President Shannon Hardin

• Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein

• Councilman Emmanuel V. Remy

• Former City Council President Pro Tempore (and current Columbus YWCA President & CEO) Elizabeth Brown

And that’s only since 2022, when there has been more than enough information in the public realm about Wexner and Epstein’s troubling friendship. Wexner has donated to some names on that list multiple times in that three-year span.

That list also doesn’t include the donations from Wexner’s wife, Abigail Wexner.

You expect this stuff from the Republicans. Protecting powerful pedophiles has become an integral part of their identity.

As for the Democrats, it helps explain why they won’t be banging the drum on this issue.

How can they? They have all taken money that they had every reason to know was dirty, and they all quietly cashed those checks from the kindly Republican billionaire.

Well… It’s a nice thought….

Statehouse Democrats unveiled their Congressional redistricting proposal yesterday. It’d be nice not to be gerrymandered into the district of a former coal lobbyist who lives in German Village, as I am with Congressman Mike Carey.