Epstein survivor Annie Farmer supports drive to remove Les Wexner’s name from OSU campus

The former Ohio State University students who sued the school alleging it failed to protect them from being sexually abused by a campus doctor got a shoutout of support Thursday from one of the first women to blow the whistle on Jeffrey Epstein. Annie Farmer, who says both she and her sister Maria were among the hundreds of women victimized by the now-dead financier, said she supports their push to have the name of Leslie Wexner, the Ohio billionaire who once bankrolled Epstein, removed from campus buildings. Farmer also criticized OSU leaders for waging a prolonged legal battle, settled in June, with the hundreds of men who said the university did nothing to stop Dr. Richard Strauss from sexually assaulting them decades ago, often under the guise of doing physicals. The Strauss survivors have noted repeatedly that Wexner served on the OSU Board of Trustees during the time period that the campus doctor preyed on them. “Hundreds of students and alumni have made it clear that they do not want Wexner’s name on their buildings including many of the brave athletes who are survivors of Richard Strauss,” Farmer said in an emailed response to questions from NBC News. “If you are an OSU student who has been a victim of a sexual assault you are currently directed to go to the Wexner Medical Center for an exam. That is highly problematic.” Farmer was in Columbus with the Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room, a traveling public art installation that includes 3.5 million pages of partially redacted Department of Justice documents related to Epstein. A spokesperson for Wexner declined to comment. Meanwhile, OSU spokesperson Benjamin Johnson did not directly respond to Farmer’s remarks but said the university has an established process for considering renaming requests. “We have received requests related to Les Wexner, and they remain under review,” Johnson said in an email. The billionaire’s name is on the Les Wexner Football Complex, the Wexner Center for the Arts and the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Farmer told investigators that she was 16 years old in 1996 when Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell invited her to Epstein’s New Mexico ranch under the pretense of helping her with her education. But when she got there, Farmer said, they sexually assaulted her. Her testimony helped convict Maxwell in 2021 of sex trafficking and other charges. Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence. Epstein, who was charged in 2019 with sex trafficking of minors, died in a New York City jail while awaiting trial and his death was ruled a suicide. President Donald Trump, who was once a close friend of Epstein’s, has never been accused by authorities of any wrongdoing connected to Epstein. He had also denied any wrongdoing. Farmer said there are parallels between when happened to the hundreds of women Epstein groomed and preyed on and what happened to the young men Strauss targeted when he worked at OSU from 1978 through 1998. Strauss killed himself in 2005. “Both illustrate the tremendous harm that predators can cause when they are surrounded by a network of enablers who look the other way because it is uncomfortable or inconvenient to acknowledge their crimes,” Farmer said. Farmer noted that Strauss’ abuse was exposed only because of the “bravery of whistleblowers like Stephen Snyder-Hill and Michael DiSabato.” DiSabato, a former OSU wrestler, led the charge to hold the university accountable. Snyder-Hill, also a former OSU student and Strauss survivor, emerged as an outspoken critic of his alma mater. “My sister, Maria Farmer, has long been grateful for the way this group of brave men has spoken out,” Farmer said. Back in 2020, a group of former OSU wrestlers formally asked Ohio Inspector General Randall Meyer to investigate allegations that Maria Farmer was assaulted in 1996 by Epstein at an Ohio property “owned and secured” by Wexner. Wexner, who said he cut ties with Epstein in 2007 after the first allegations surfaced that he was trafficking in and sexually abusing young women, has denied knowing Maria Farmer and having any knowledge of her alleged assault. Wexner has denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein. Meyer’s office did not immediately respond to a request to find out if those allegations were ever investigated. A search of news databases uncovered no news articles indicating that his office looked into the allegations. DiSabato also led the drive to remove Wexner’s name from the OSU campus buildings the Victoria’s Secret founder helped fund. He did so while a group of 279 Strauss survivors was locked in a legal battle with the university. The former wrestler was one of 317 plaintiffs who had settled their lawsuits against OSU earlier. In June, OSU agreed to pay $100 million in damages to the 279 former students. Currently, a special master is in the process of determining how to divide the nine-figure settlement with these claimants.