Leon Black and Leslie Wexner Contributions to Jeffrey Epstein Birthday Book Released By US Congressional Committee

Documents from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein that were submitted to the US House of Representatives Oversight Committee—including pages from a birthday book which included contributions from collectors Leon Black and Leslie Wexner—were recently released in full by the panel.

A partially redacted version of the leather-bound book compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday was released on September 8, including the lewd drawing from President Donald Trump in the shape of a naked woman, and uploaded online by Axios.

The book includes poems, photos, and messages from friends and business associates. It was compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell, his former associate who was convicted of child sex trafficking in 2021. The Wall Street Journal previously reported on the existence of the drawing by Trump in July.

Trump, who has denied that he created his drawing, filed a lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal, two of its reporters, News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson, and News Corp. majority owner Rupert Murdoch for defamation. The White House reiterated that Trump made the drawing on Monday after the drawing was released by the committee.

In addition to redacted pages from the birthday book, the House panel also released copies of Epstein’s last will and testament, the September 2007 non-prosecution deal between the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and the convicted sex offender, and entries from the contact book of the late financier.

Epstein, a convicted sex offender, was arrested in July 2019 by federal agents. He was found dead six weeks later while being held in a federal detention facility.

A simple note from a retail billionaire

Wexner’s written contribution to the 50th birthday book says “Dear Jeffrey, I wanted to get you what… so here it is…” along with a drawing of breasts. It is signed, “Happy Birthday, your friend, Leslie.”

Wexner, a billionaire art collector who lent his name to the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, OHio, had a close relationship with and received financial advice from Epstein dating back to 1989. Wexnes has previously said he cut ties with Epstein in 2007. Wexner declined to comment to the Wall Street Journal through a spokesman about his letter.

Wexner, who had made his fortune in retail from Bath & Body Works and other companies, was also named in unsealed court documents last January which emerged from a unsealed civil lawsuit brought against Epstein by an alleged victim of sex trafficking.

The documents were from a civil lawsuit from 2015 in which Virginia Giuffre accused Epstein and Maxwell of coercing her into sexual encounters with powerful politicians and businessmen, including claims of sex with Wexner on multiple occasions. The case was settled in 2017.

An elaborate, handwritten poem

Black’s contribution to the birthday book for Epstein was a two-page, four-stanza rhyming poem about him being a “Vanity Fair Poster Child” that also called him a “Dear Friend” and a “wet dream and cauchemar,” the latter being the French word for nightmare. Black signed the poem “Love and Kisses, Leon.”

A spokesman for Black, the cofounder of Apollo Global Management, also declined to comment to the Wall Street Journal about the letter. In addition to being a top collector, Black was formerly the chair of the board at the Museum of Modern Art, a position he stepped down from in 2021, though he remains at trustee at the museum.

Black was already the subject of scrutiny for his relationship to Epstein earlier this year after a US senator called for an investigation into the billionaire’s business relationship with the late financier.

Ron Wyden, a democratic senator from Oregon and a member of the Senate Finance Committee, called on the Internal Revenue Service to investigate “suspicious transactions involving alleged tax planning work performed by Jeffrey Epstein” for Black. Wyden also accused the IRS of having “failed over the course of many years to audit major tax transactions involving Epstein.”