Epstein survivor Annie Farmer supports campaign to remove Leslie Wexner’s name from OSU campus

Former Ohio State University students who sued the school, alleging it failed to protect them from sexual abuse at the hands of a campus doctor, received a cry of support Thursday from one of the first women to speak out against Jeffrey Epstein.

Annie Farmer, who says she and her sister Maria were among hundreds of women victimized by the now-deceased financier, said she supports their efforts to have the name of Leslie Wexner, the Ohio billionaire who once financed Epstein, removed from campus.

Farmer also criticized OSU leaders for waging a protracted legal battle, settled in June, with 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 medical examinations.

Strauss survivors have repeatedly noted that Wexner served on the OSU board of trustees during the time the campus doctor was preying on them.

“Hundreds of students and alumni have made it clear that they do not want Wexner’s name on their buildings, including many courageous athletes who are Richard Strauss survivors,” Farmer said in an email response to questions from NBC News. “If you are an OSU student who has been a victim of sexual assault, you are currently being asked to come to Wexner Medical Center for an examination. This is very 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 Justice Department documents related to Epstein.

A spokesperson for Wexner declined to comment.

Meanwhile, OSU spokesman Benjamin Johnson did not respond directly to Farmer’s remarks, but said the university has an established process for reviewing name change requests.

“We have received inquiries regarding 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 Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University.

Farmer told investigators that she was 16 in 1996 when Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell invited her to Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico under the guise of helping him with his studies. 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, charged in 2019 with sex trafficking of minors, died in a New York jail while awaiting trial, and his death was ruled a suicide. President Donald Trump, who was once a close friend of Epstein, has never been accused by authorities of wrongdoing related to Epstein. He also denied any wrongdoing.

Farmer said there are parallels between what 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 to 1998. Strauss committed suicide in 2005.

“Both illustrate the enormous harm that predators can cause when they are surrounded by a network of enablers who look the other way because it is uncomfortable or impractical to acknowledge their crimes,” Farmer said.

Farmer noted that Strauss’ abuse only came to light because of the “courage 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 an OSU alumnus 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 courageous men spoke out,” Farmer said.

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 severed ties with Epstein in 2007 after allegations first surfaced that he trafficked and sexually abused 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 for comment on whether the allegations had ever been investigated. A search of news databases revealed no news articles indicating his office had looked into the allegations.

DiSabato also led the campaign to remove Wexner’s name from OSU campus buildings that the Victoria’s Secret founder helped fund.

He did so while a group of 279 Strauss survivors were engaged in a legal battle with the university. The former wrestler was one of 317 plaintiffs who earlier settled their lawsuits against OSU.

In June, OSU agreed to pay $100 million in damages to 279 former students. Currently, a special expert is determining how to split the nine-figure settlement with these claimants.