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U.S. Sen. Jon Husted has given $34,300 in contributions from Les Wexner, who had longtime ties to notorious child sex trafficker Jeffery Epstein, to an anti-human trafficking charity, but he won't give the other $45,600 he's received from Wexner despite having more than $6.1 million in his state campaign fund.
Amy Natoce, Husted's campaign spokeswoman, said the campaign donated "all available funds" to the charity, Freedom a la Cart. That didn't include the other $45,600 Husted, a Republican, received from Wexner.
Wexner, a New Albany billionaire, is listed as an Epstein "co-conspirator" in the FBI's sex trafficking investigation files made public in February. Founder and former CEO of L Brands, Wexner has never been criminally charged.
But with Wexner contributing money to Husted's campaigns going back to 2005, it is likely that those old accounts were closed with the Wexner money already spent in previous campaigns and the money no longer existing.
That doesn't mean, though, that Husted couldn't take out that $45,600 from his state account and give it to charity.
Husted cannot transfer the $6,159,214.78 he had in his state account as of June 30, disclosed in a July 31 report, to his federal account under law so it sits largely inactive.
During the first six months of the year, Husted's state campaign spent $77,282.06 with its largest expenses being $44,820 to the IRS in 2025 taxes and the $30,800 to Freedom a la Cart, based in Columbus. The fund also collected $64,116.16 in bank interest during those six months.
Husted was appointed in January 2025 to the unexpired Senate term of JD Vance, who left it to become vice president. Husted, who was serving as Gov. Mike DeWine's lieutenant governor at the time of the appointment, is running in the Nov. 3 election for the remaining two years of Vance's term. Husted will face Democrat Sherrod Brown, a former three-term senator who lost a 2024 reelection bid to Republican Bernie Moreno.
This is one of the most contested Senate races in the country this year.
Patrick Eisenhauer, Brown's campaign manager, said: "Jon Husted took over $116,000 from Jeffrey Epstein's close friend and co-conspirator. That's 10 times more than any other sitting U.S. senator. Just last year, Husted took a maximum donation from Epstein's co-conspirator and weeks later voted to block the release of the Epstein files. The record is clear."
Brown's campaign lumps in $26,992 Wexner gave in 2020 and 2022 to DeWine when Husted was his running mate and $10,000 to the DeWine-Husted transition fund in 2018 to come up with the "over $116,000" amount. As DeWine's running mate, Husted has no control over those two funds.
The $34,300 that Husted gave to Freedom a la Cart from Wexner's contributions included $3,500 given in July 2025 to his Senate fund and $30,800 to his statewide campaigns.
Husted voted Sept. 10 against an attempt by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York senator, to attach an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act to release the Epstein files. That wasn't a standalone vote and President Donald Trump, a Republican, at the time opposed the Department of Justice releasing the Epstein files.
But Husted voted Nov. 19 to release the files providing details about Epstein, a child sex trafficker who died in prison in 2019, as a standalone bill. The Senate vote was by unanimous consent and came after Trump supported the DOJ release of the files.
Natoce said: "The Wexners have given to dozens of candidates from both sides of the aisle -- including Sherrod Brown. Unlike Brown, our campaign donated all available funds to an anti-human trafficking charity and Jon Husted voted to release the Epstein files. Why does Sherrod Brown refuse to donate the funds he received from Epstein associates? Why did Sherrod Brown sit on the Epstein files during his 32 years in Washington? He owes Ohioans answers."
Brown's campaign declined to respond to Natoce's statement.
Brown has never received any money from Les Wexner, but his campaign received $15,200 between 2011 and 2017 from Wexner's wife, Abigail.
While Brown served 32 years in the U.S. House and Senate, the FBI didn't start compiling the Epstein files until around 2019 with the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November, months after Brown was no longer in office.
The New York Post contended in a March 7 article that Brown received more than $124,000 in campaign contributions from those linked to Epstein. Unlike Wexner, none are listed as "co-conspirators."
The money includes about $23,000 from four people who had possible knowledge of Epstein's crimes while the rest are from those named in the files, but don't have a clear connection to Epstein's crimes.
Of note is $10,300 Brown received in 2024 and 2025 from Larry Summers, a former U.S. Treasury secretary who resigned in February from Harvard University after correspondence with Epstein was released.
Neither Summers nor any of the people listed in the article as giving money to Brown were criminally charged in the Epstein case.
Brown has refused to return or donate any of that money to charity.