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Bob Fitrakis

October 8, 2026

Opinion

Jeffrey Epstein is back in Columbus – where he was hanging around throughout much of the 90s – in a visual timeline highlighting nearly every egregious act he ever committed. Today I was one of the first visitors at the Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room touring exhibit. The nonprofit Institute for Public Facts brought the 3.5 million pages of unsealed court records and Department of Justice files to the Sanctuary on Neil Thursday, October 8 through Sunday, October 11, a stop on their nationwide tour. 

The monumental number of bound Epstein Files lining rows of shelves was overwhelming in their presence but off-limits to the touch. But we were allowed to read through the heavily redacted red-covered “Trump Files.” After looking at two volumes, I realized that every redaction I saw was protecting a predator, not any of the victims. 

The exhibit’s biggest display was the detailed summary of Donald and Jeffrey’s (and Ghislaine’s) criminal exploits, i.e., Donald raping Ivana, the times Donald flew on Epstein’s Lolita Express plane, and Epstein’s connection to central Ohio’s own Leslie Wexner and Victoria’s Secret. 

I noticed the timeline left out the fact that Epstein lived in New Albany in a house given to him by, and next door to Wexner while Epstein served as Wexner’s financial advisor. I wrote a few articles for Columbus Alive! and the Columbus Free Press exposing the Wexner-Epstein relationship – how Epstein got the job after the suspicious mob-style murder of Wexner’s former financial advisor; how Epstein facilitated the CIA-connected drug smuggling Southern Air Transport airline coming to Rickenbacker as a carrier for Wexner’s textiles from Hong Kong; and how Maria Farmer, an Epstein survivor, called the police from a property linked to Wexner and Epstein where she said she was being held against her will. 

The most visually compelling, but disturbing part of the exhibit is Maria Farmer’s art. Farmer is a visual artist who also was the first to file a criminal complaint against Epstein. Her paintings depict the most evil people she encountered during her Epstein experiences as very creative and colorful characters. She has an impressive talent to paint very recognizable faces of her abusers and their enablers – Wexner in a dress, Ghislaine and Governor Richardson in a Zorro poster (directed by the CIA), Prince Andrew naked from the waist down and as a bird, Kevin Spacey in a spacesuit, a Victoria’s Secret model, Alan Dershowitz as a liar-yer, and Epstein hanging (above the letters C.I.A.). In fact, many of the paintings refer to the CIA. Early on, there were reports that prosecutors went easy on Epstein because of the rumors tying him to the intelligence communities in the U.S., Britain and Israel. Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine’s father, had ties with the Mossad, MI6  and the KGB according to the FBI.

Farmer’s work is essential in framing the entire Epstein saga as she knew it. And certainly the rest of the exhibit left no doubt of Trump’s shameless involvement. As I’ve written, and most people know, it was Wexner’s money that created the abominable creature Epstein became. Though Wexner himself has not been charged with anything, he’s been labeled an unindicted co-conspirator. There are currently movements to remove his name from buildings all over central Ohio.

You can still reserve a spot to view the Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room touring exhibit. It is free and allows visitors to enter at 20-minute intervals. 

Original Article here: https://freepress.org/article/columbus-homecoming-jeff-epstein