[GRADE A1/A2/B -- 22 web/X searches | February 18, 2026]
Les Wexner, 88, is being deposed today (Feb 18) in a closed-door session at his New Albany, Ohio residence by the House Oversight Committee. This is the first sworn testimony from Epstein's primary financial patron.
Pre-deposition statement: Called himself "naive, foolish, and gullible." Denied witnessing or having knowledge of Epstein's criminal activity. Denied ever being on Epstein's airplane. Claimed Epstein purchased the NYC townhouse at appraised value. The FBI named Wexner as a co-conspirator in documents written days after Epstein's death (Aug 2019), with "limited evidence" qualifier.
Rep. Robert Garcia (Oversight ranking member): "Wexner was Jeffrey Epstein's single largest benefactor. The plane, the island, the homes -- much of that came directly from Wexner."
Reps. Khanna (D) and Massie (R) reviewed unredacted files in the DOJ reading room and identified 6 men they described as "likely incriminated": Leslie Wexner, Salvatore Nuara, Zurab Mikeladze, Leonic Leonov, Nicola Caputo, and Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem (Emirati businessman, chairman of DP World). Khanna accused the DOJ of "scrubbing files to protect elite, powerful men."
Sen. Wyden (Jul 2025) revealed a Treasury file containing 4,725 wire transfers totaling ~$1.1 billion flowing through Epstein accounts (2003-2019). ~$200 million flowed through sanctioned Russian banks (Sberbank, Alfa Bank) with transfers "correlated to the movement of women and girls" from Russia, Belarus, Turkey, and Turkmenistan. Treasury Secretary Bessent has refused to produce the records. Wyden introduced the Produce Epstein Treasury Records Act (Dec 2025).
UC Berkeley Professor Hany Farid (working with WIRED) analyzed the released MCC surveillance footage:
Axon's $625M acquisition of Carbyne (expected Q1 2026 close) creates a unified pipeline: 911 call (Carbyne) --> dispatch --> field response (body cameras) --> evidence management --> prosecution (Axon Cloud Suite). Combined with the $800-900M Prepared acquisition (Sep 2025), Axon has invested $1.4B+ in AI-powered law enforcement technology, much of it originating from Unit 8200 alumni and initially funded by Epstein and Barak.
January 30, 2026: 3.5 million pages, 180,000 images, 2,000+ videos released. Declared "final release" under Transparency Act. February 15: DOJ sent Congress a list of "politically exposed persons" including Trump, Clinton, Navy Secretary Phelan, Commerce Secretary Lutnick, Fed nominee Warsh, Ambassador Barrack. Error discovered: 43 of 47 victim names left unredacted; ~9,500 documents subsequently removed.
Feb 9 deposition: Invoked Fifth Amendment 13+ times. Attorney offered full testimony in exchange for presidential clemency, claiming Maxwell can "prove Trump and Clinton innocent." White House: "not on his radar." Bipartisan H.Res.635 opposes clemency.
Multiple methods discovered for recovering redacted content from DOJ PDFs: copy-paste extraction, image filter exposure adjustment, base64 decoding of email attachments. The PDF Association confirmed EFTA Datasets 01-07 are properly redacted; other datasets have vulnerabilities. The project's existing rhowardstone pipeline (39,588 ReconstructedPages) represents this same recovery work at industrial scale.
A UN Human Rights Council panel stated in February 2026 that the Epstein files depict a "global criminal enterprise" meeting the legal threshold of "crimes against humanity" under international law.