Ohio State University chairman John Zeiger is a pedophile protector [Opinion]
John Zeiger's firm went to war for "John Doe #183" (aka Leslie Wexner) over the "supposed Epstein List" while defending convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell in federal court.
This dispatch is too long for email. Please open your browser to view in full!
As The Rooster reported on Feb. 2, the Columbus-based law firm of Zeiger, Tigges & Little filed an amicus brief in federal court supporting British sex pest Ghislaine Maxwell—three years after her 20-year conviction for sex trafficking.
The filing came in a case filed by Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s earliest known victims, and Julie K. Brown, the Miami Herald reporter who’s done more than anyone to expose Epstein’s pedophile network.
Longtime observers of Zeiger, Tigges & Little have told The Rooster it's little more than a “sweatshop for white lawyers” where not even so much as errant post-lunch flatulence happens without the direct approval of John Zeiger, the chairman of the Ohio State University Board of Trustees and longtime attorney for Ohio’s richest pervert, Leslie Wexner.
We now know, thanks to the diligence of Mike Newman, that Zeiger’s son, Matt, and his junior partner Marion Little, filed the amicus brief in support of “John Doe #183” — also known as the aforementioned rich pervert.
You can view the entire filing here:
In the filing, Wexner’s lawyers argue that releasing his name would recklessly invade the privacy of Epstein’s best friend, long-time business partner and rumored lover (perhaps not in those exact words):
Additionally, the district court reasonably took such unfairness into account in view of the “media frenzy” surrounding this case: “This outcome [injuring NonParty Does’ privacy interests] is particularly likely in the wake of the media frenzy about some supposed ‘Epstein List’ and the mass speculation about the identities of those in it.”
Even the common-law right of inspection “must give way where records are sought merely ‘to gratify private spite or promote public scandal through the publication of the painful and sometimes disgusting details’ of cases.”
(“Courts have long declined to allow public access simply to cater to a morbid craving for that which is sensational and impure.”).
That filing, dated Sept. 9, 2024, somehow looks even more outrageous given what we’ve learned from the partial release of the federal government’s investigation into the “supposed ‘Epstein List.’”
Thanks to the heroics of U.S. Representatives Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) and Ro Khanna (D-California), we now know facts that paint Wexner and his wife, Abigail Wexner, in a much more dubious light than his lawyers would have had a federal judge believe 15 months ago.
The Wexners haven’t been honest about when they ended their relationship with Epstein.
The cut-off date was supposedly Sept. 4, 2007, when Epstein resigned, ostensibly in disgrace, from the Wexner Foundation seat once held by Wexner’s mother. Yet, days later, Epstein was approving tax payments for the couple.
In Nov. 2007—days before the stock market crash—Mrs. Wexner labeled the further contract between herself and the indicted child molester as “fine and not a problem.”
Epstein maintained final authority over major Wexner financial decisions through at least 2008.
In June 2008—days before Epstein went to prison on the backroom deal of the century—Wexner emailed him, from his corporate account, saying he was “sorry” but chiding Epstein for “breaking his No. 1 rule… be careful, always.”
Wexner, then-Chairman of the Ohio State Board of Trustees, was served a subpoena, alongside Donald Trump, in a Jane Doe #102 case against Epstein, which the sex offender later settled, with a copy being sent to Zeiger, Tigges & Little.
Epstein, in an undated letter to Wexner, said he was “certain” Zeiger had “transmitted his suggestion,” while passive-aggressively reminding the billionaire that he owed Epstein “a great debt” before mentioning being accosted by Abigail with accusations that he couldn’t answer without betraying Wexner’s confidence.
The FBI considered Wexner to be one of ten Epstein co-conspirators as late as 2019, with Zeiger telling at least one agent that his firm was actively looking to hire a criminal defense lawyer to represent Wexner.
The Wexners proffered—meaning they offered information valuable to the criminal case against Epstein without fear of prosecution—with the Southern District of New York, the office that ultimately sent Epstein to prison for a second and final time.
The only Zeigers mentioned in the millions of pages of the Epstein Files—which the Trump Department of Justice has yet to release in full, as required by law—are John and his son, Matt.
The last mention of “Zeiger” comes on July 15, 2015, when Epstein cryptically told his lawyer, Martin Weinberg, to “ask Zeiger to check location on March 8, 2001.”
That’s a very specific date for Epstein to recall more than 14 years later. It must have been an eventful occasion!
We don’t know if “Zeiger” made the ask, or even who he was supposed to be asking.
But it’s hard to envision it being anyone other than his old friend, Leslie.
Let’s say that’s true, for the sake of argument.
We don’t know what Wexner was doing on March 8, 2001. And given his recent performances under oath, he’d probably claim he couldn’t remember where he was, let alone what he was doing on that date.
But we know what Epstein was doing.
From Georgie Keat of The Sunday Times (brackets mine):
[Epstein and Maxwell] picked up Virginia Roberts, then aged 17, in Palm Beach, Florida, in March 2001 and flew her to Paris via Canada. There Alberto Pinto, the interior designer, his sister, Linda, Ricardo Legorreta, the Mexican architect, and an unnamed female joined the party and went to Granada in Spain.
The Pintos and the woman were taken on to Tangier in Morocco before Ms Roberts flew with Epstein and Ms Maxwell to London for two days.
It was there that Ms Roberts has said she was taken to Ms Maxwell’s house in Knightsbridge, where the photo of Prince Andrew with his hand round the teenager’s bare midriff was allegedly taken.
According to Giuffre, she met the since-arrested and disgraced Prince Andrew on March 10, 2001.
From Vikram Dodd and Nadeem Badshah of The Guardian:
On 10 March 2001 we were in London, staying at Maxwell’s pied-à-terre – a white mews house a short walk from Hyde Park. Maxwell woke me up that morning by announcing in a singsongy voice: “Get out of bed, sleepyhead!” It was going to be a special day, she said. Just like Cinderella, I was going to meet a handsome prince! Her old friend Prince Andrew would be dining with us that night, she said, and we had lots to do to get me ready.
Wexner’s wealth enables him to travel the world like most of us think of traveling around our town.
But, we do know that Wexner loved life in Britain enough to rehab “one of the grandest” estates on the third most famous Pedophile Island in the world.
From Tim Feran of dispatch.com on Oct. 30, 2015:
Leslie H. Wexner’s New Albany home has often been likened to an English country estate, but it turns out that the L Brands founder is one of the few people who can speak authoritatively about such a comparison.
That’s because Wexner also owns “a glorious ... stately home on the edge of the Cotswolds” that is “one of the grandest in England,” according to a recent story in London’s Sunday Telegraph.
“While pheasant shooting may be a very British pastime, few people will have realized that the host at the mansion is the billionaire American tycoon behind the Victoria’s Secret lingerie empire,” the Sunday Telegraph story said.
Giuffre—the plaintiff in the Jane Doe #102 case that Wexner and Zeiger buried in 2009—went on to accuse Epstein of trafficking her to the Central Ohio billionaire, whom she said engaged in “multiple sex acts” with her.
Giuffre died, apparently by suicide, in April 2025, a mere seven months after Zeiger, Tigges & Little defended Wexner and Maxwell by railing against the public’s “morbid and impure” desire to learn more about the “supposed ‘Epstein List.’”
Giuffre died months before the Epstein Files would vindicate almost all of her claims.
Ohio State: Slapshot “weirdly brazen” about affair with podcaster, but our investigators determined the new head honcho knew nothing about it!
