A federal judge ruled that Michael Jeffries, the former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO accused of running an international sex trafficking operation while he led the company, is mentally competent to stand trial, reversing her own finding from last year.
U.S. District Judge Nusrat Choudhury issued the decision in a 157 page ruling. She wrote that there is ample evidence, far more than a preponderance of the evidence, showing Jeffries is competent to proceed on the sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges. She described him as clearly possessing a rational and factual understanding of the proceedings, and as a reasonably intelligent person and skilled communicator with more than sufficient ability to consult with his lawyers.
Competency has a specific legal meaning here. It is not about guilt or innocence. It asks only whether a defendant understands what is happening to him and can help his own attorneys defend him. If the answer is no, the case stops until it changes.
Last year, the answer was no. In May 2025, Choudhury found Jeffries was suffering from a mental disease or defect leaving him unable to understand the nature and consequences of the case or properly assist in his defense. His attorneys had told the court the then 80 year old required around the clock care because of Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia, and the residual effects of a traumatic brain injury. Doctors said his memory impairment and cognitive decline meant he could not work with his lawyer or accurately recall the events at issue. Both the defense and prosecutors asked that he be placed in Bureau of Prisons custody for hospitalization and treatment that might let the case move forward. Choudhury ordered him hospitalized for up to four months.
He went to the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina. What happened there is what changed the outcome.
Choudhury reviewed testimony from six expert witnesses, medical records, and more than 21 hours of Jeffries’ recorded phone calls from the facility. Some of the medical experts who evaluated him after treatment affirmed his competency. The judge singled out the 109 calls he made during his four month stay as particularly illuminating, writing that on those calls he is a fluent conversational partner who demonstrates the ability to take in new information by ear and retrieve it days or weeks later, especially when the subject matters to him.
She quoted one call in which Jeffries said he was worried about going to trial and that if he were found guilty, they would take all their money away. In another he said it would be a disaster in terms of time, effort, money, every way you can say it.
His legal team had argued as recently as the end of May that the combination of the brain injury and what one expert diagnosed as probable Lewy body dementia left him unable to consult with counsel with any reasonable degree of rational understanding.
Choudhury built accommodations into the trial anyway. Court will run from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, with more frequent breaks, so Jeffries has each morning to review transcripts and go over strategy with his attorneys.
The underlying case dates to his arrest in 2024. Federal prosecutors charged that Jeffries operated an international sex trafficking enterprise alongside two other men while he was still running Abercrombie & Fitch, with allegations involving dozens of young male models. He pleaded not guilty in October 2024 to 16 counts of sex trafficking and interstate prostitution. The federal charges followed sexual misconduct accusations that had already surfaced in a civil case and in press reporting.
Brian Bieber, an attorney for Jeffries, declined to comment on the ruling beyond saying the case and all related issues will be tried inside the courtroom rather than in the media.
Jeffries is 82. Trial is scheduled for late October in federal court in Central Islip on Long Island.
