Republican Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio took the maximum $3,500 donation from billionaire Les Wexner on July 3, 2025. Wexner is the retail mogul an FBI document listed as a possible co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein.
Ten weeks later, Husted voted to kill an amendment that would have forced the Justice Department to release the Epstein files. Now, with early voting underway, Ohio voters are getting their say.
The Check, Then the Vote
Federal records show Wexner gave Husted's Senate campaign $3,500 in July 2025, the most one person can give per election. On September 10, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer offered an amendment to the defense bill that would have directed the Attorney General to make the Epstein documents public.
Republicans moved to table it, which kills it without a straight up or down vote. The motion passed 51 to 49. Husted voted with the Republican majority. Only two Republicans, Josh Hawley and Rand Paul, joined every Democrat in voting to keep the amendment alive.
At the time, Donald Trump opposed the Justice Department releasing the files. Husted stuck with Trump.
Who Is Les Wexner?
Wexner is the billionaire behind The Limited and Victoria's Secret. Epstein managed his personal finances for more than a decade in the 1990s and early 2000s. An August 2019 internal FBI document, unredacted this February, listed Wexner among eight possible co-conspirators, alongside Ghislaine Maxwell. Another FBI email from that month said there was limited evidence of his involvement.
Wexner has never been charged with a crime. His representatives say a federal prosecutor told his lawyers in 2019 that he was neither a co-conspirator nor a target. In a February deposition to the House Oversight Committee, he said he was conned by Epstein and denied any knowledge of his crimes.
Two Decades of Wexner Money
The July check was not a one-off. Wexner has steered about $116,000 toward Husted since 2001, according to campaign finance records first reported by TiffinOhio. That is more than he has given any other sitting member of Congress, per Sherrod Brown's campaign.
Roughly $80,000 went straight to Husted's own campaigns. The rest, about $37,000, went to Gov. Mike DeWine's campaigns and transition fund while Husted was his running mate, the Morning Journal found.
Wexner also wrote $250,000 in checks to the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2025, the Senate GOP's campaign arm. FEC records date them to October 28, weeks after the tabling vote.
Then Trump Flipped, and So Did Republicans
In November 2025, public pressure and a bipartisan House push forced Trump to reverse course. The Epstein Files Transparency Act then cleared the Senate on November 19 by unanimous consent, with no recorded vote.
Husted did not object, and his campaign now calls that his real vote on the issue. But earlier that same month he had again voiced opposition to releasing the files, according to Ohio Democrats. He got on board only once his party's leader did.
The Charity Move Only Goes So Far
After the Wexner name was unredacted in February and Brown went on the attack, Husted announced he would give Wexner's money to charity. His campaign says it gave $34,300 to Freedom a la Cart, a Columbus anti-trafficking group.
That leaves about $45,600 of Wexner's direct contributions that Husted has not matched. His campaign says that money was spent in past cycles. Yet his old state account held more than $6.1 million as of June 30, money that sits largely idle because it cannot move to a federal race.
Ohio Voters Are Watching
Husted, appointed to JD Vance's old seat in January 2025, faces Democrat Sherrod Brown on November 3. Brown has run at least three TV ads hitting Husted over the Wexner money, and a traveling exhibit of the Justice Department's Epstein records was scheduled to reach Ohio this week.
The race is a dead heat. Brown leads by 3.5 points in the Crosstab polling average, while a co/efficient poll taken October 5 and 6 had Husted up a single point. Back in February, a heckler at a Norwalk coffee shop called Husted a pedophile protector.
What Husted and Wexner Say
Husted spokeswoman Amy Natoce called the September vote procedural and said "there has only been one vote" that counts, the November bill. The campaign also points out that Wexner's wife, Abigail, and others named in the files gave to Brown. Brown never took money from Les Wexner himself, FEC records show.
Wexner testified under oath that he never asked Husted or anyone else to block the files. In a statement to Congress, he said, "I have done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide."
The Bottom Line
Jon Husted pocketed the maximum check from a man the FBI once listed as a possible Epstein co-conspirator, then voted to keep the files buried until Trump gave Republicans permission to stop. He gave some of the money away only after he got caught. Ohio voters can decide on November 3 whether that is good enough.
Sources: The New Republic (Edith Olmsted), TiffinOhio, NOTUS, NBC News, the Morning Journal, the Associated Press via WOSU, Ohio Democratic Party, Crosstab, FEC records and the U.S. Senate roll call.