Prosecutors pushed back Wednesday on defense claims that the former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch is mentally incompetent, hitting play on audio tapes of him mulling defense strategies for his sex trafficking case and lamenting the loss of his flagship store in Manhattan.
In a series of prison phone recordings played in court, Michael Jeffries, 81, was heard talking about possible defenses, including that his accusers were “adults” at the time and that “there was no force involved.”
Jeffries also repeatedly emphasized the importance of being found incompetent to stand trial, telling his co-defendant, longtime romantic partner Matthew Smith, in an August 2025 prison tape that, otherwise, “we’re screwed” and “we’re in big trouble.”
The recordings, from Jefferies’ four-month stay last year in the mental health unit of a North Carolina prison, were introduced on the second day of a three-day competency hearing in federal court in Central Islip, NY.
Jeffries, who led Abercrombie & Fitch from 1992 to 2014, is seeking to be found unfit for his October trial. His lawyers argue he suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia and cannot understand the charges or assist in his defense.
BERTRAND GUAY/AFP via Getty Images
Defense witnesses — two psychologists and a psychiatrist have testified so far — countered that Jeffries would never have discussed his competency on a recorded prison phone line if he was actually competent.
“He’s right,” a defense psychiatrist said Wednesday, when a prosecutor asked about Jeffries’ remark to Smith that “we’re screwed” if Jeffries is found competent for trial.
According to the 2024 indictment, the ex-CEO, Smith, and their employee, James Jacobson, lured, drugged, and abused dozens of young men at “sex events” in the Hamptons and throughout Europe.
The accusers were hoping to become A&F models.
Other tapes played on Wednesday showed Jeffries speaking bitterly of his indictment — and longingly of his past.
“There’s no one in the world who can stand up and say I was involved in raping and assaulting people around the world, to the detriment of my business,” Jeffries told doctors during an interview taped in January.
In another tape, he lamented the loss of Abercrombie’s original 2005 New York City flagship store, once a tourist attraction for its night-club atmosphere and the shirtless young men who greeted shoppers.
Carley Margolis/FilmMagic for Paul Wilmot Communications
“I rode down Fifth Avenue for the first time in years,” Jeffries told a defense psychiatrist. “They moved the fucking store,” to a new location three blocks south, Jeffries said in the January 2026 tape.
“I started to cry,” he told psychiatrist Dr. Alexander Bardey, who testified Wednesday as a defense witness.
“I’m still crying about it,” Jeffries continued in the tape, his voice breaking with emotion as he remembered the flagship outlet, which he described as “a beautiful store,” and “my life.”
“Just doesn’t make sense,” Jeffries said in the tape, telling the defense psychiatrist, “build a story around that.”
One prison tape captured a tender moment between Jeffries and Smith.
“You won’t stand trial,” Smith is heard consoling Jeffries in the August recording.
“Yeah, but you will,” Jeffries responds, concern for his romantic partner apparent in his voice.
“Don’t worry about that,” Smith reassures him, to which Jeffries answers, “It’s driving me crazy.”
Other tapes played by prosecutors on Wednesday show Jeffries enthusing in detail about a “fascinating book” he read on the history of Conde Nast, and praising the romance drama “Heated Rivalry” — though he misremembers the title as “Fierce Rivalry.”
Jeffries, of West Palm Beach, Florida, made millions of dollars a year while leading the international retail chain between 1992 and 2014, and is free on $10 million bail as he awaits trial in October.
Prosecutors have additionally seized $11 million of Jeffries’ cash, according to court papers.
They allege that many of the so-called “sex events” happened at Jeffries’ former $28 million Hamptons estate.
The competency hearing is being held in a federal courtroom an hour’s drive west of the estate. Jeffries has so far attended both days, sitting quietly at the defense table and turning his head to watch whoever is speaking.
US District Court Judge Nusrat Chowdhury has not said when she will rule on Jeffries’ competency.
The three co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to their shared indictment on sex trafficking and prostitution charges. If convicted, they face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of life in prison.
