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WASHINGTON — The US House of Representatives voted to hold Leon Black in contempt of Congress on Wednesday after the ex-hedge fund manager and associate of Jeffrey Epstein ignored subpoenas for further testimony and information.
The House passed the contempt resolution by unanimous consent after it had advanced out of the Oversight Committee in a bipartisan vote on Tuesday.
“No one is above the law. Leon Black defied two subpoenas, and the U.S. House of Representatives acted swiftly to find him in contempt of Congress,” said House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.).
“We will continue to seek transparency for the American people and justice for survivors in our investigation of the federal government’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell criminal cases.”
Black’s attorneys Susan Estrich and Aaron Cutler responded in a statement that the vote was “an outrageous action that ignores the facts and the truth about Mr. Black.”
“To be clear, our lawsuit shows the Committee and Chairman Comer’s abused their Congressional power and broke the law. We believe that our confidential ethics complaint will further show that Chairman Comer violated the rules of the House,” they said.
“Mr. Black has cooperated with the Committee by voluntarily appearing to answer questions in a transcribed interview. Despite being misled about the intent of that interview, he then fully complied with the Committee’s subpoena related to Epstein, consistent with the stated legislative purpose of the Committee’s investigation, as described by Chairman Comer,” the attorneys added.
“Mr. Black provided the Committee with the only confidentiality agreement that Jeffrey Epstein knew about as part of Mr. Black’s cooperation with the Committee’s efforts to ferret out the truth about Epstein. He also testified to this fact. We also told them that Ghislaine Maxwell had absolutely nothing to do with any of the agreements,” they continued.
“The Committee has continued to insist on looking for information that does not exist. They are looking to ask questions about every NDA Mr. Black ever signed including with business partners over his 50 year career and also with individuals who he never met. This is absurd. They even asked him to give the names of individuals in his social circle who have NDA’s,” the attorneys also said.
“We intend to pursue our litigation challenging this action and will hold the Committee and Chairman Comer accountable in the courts.”
Black, 75, had ignored subpoenas earlier this year from the committee demanding further testimony subject to video recording and non-disclosure agreements he signed with women linked to Epstein.
Earlier this month, the ex-Apollo Global Management CEO had sued the Oversight Committee in response to their attempts to compel his testimony at a deposition on Sept. 3.
An Apollo review in 2021 determined that Black paid Epstein $158 million between 2012 and 2017 for tax advice, estate planning and other money management.
That was years after Epstein had already served time in a state facility for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
A Department of Justice spokesperson noted that it had yet to receive the Black referral for contempt of Congress, but expected to obtain it soon and took the allegations “seriously.”
“For the past 18 months, the Department has repeatedly said it will follow additional investigative leads in all matters relating to Jeffrey Epstein,” the rep added. “The US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia will review the referral of Mr. Black carefully and will not hesitate to pursue additional cases where the evidence supports.”
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