Billionaire investor Leon Black thwarted a congressional subpoena Thursday and failed to show up to provide closed-door testimony about his relationship with late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and agreements he may have signed with some of the victims.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer said Mr. Black is suing both the committee and him.
“Of all the people we’ve brought in, of all the powerful billionaires and political people we brought in for interviews and depositions, this is the first time anyone’s filed suit,” the Kentucky Republican told reporters outside of the committee room where the deposition was supposed to take place.
Mr. Black is among a string of wealthy witnesses the committee has interviewed as it probes Epstein’s sex trafficking operation and his associates who may have been involved.
Mr. Black said in an interview he paid Epstein $158 million for tax and financial advice.
Democrats on Thursday claimed Mr. Black provided $180 million to Epstein that they also claim was used to traffic women and underage girls.
“We must hold him in contempt and get justice for survivors,” California Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the Oversight panel, said.
Mr. Comer said the committee is weighing its next steps.
According to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court on Thursday, Mr. Black is trying to block two subpoenas compelling his testimony and the production of nondisclosure agreements.
Mr. Black argued the subpoenas exceed the committee’s authority because they seek private information “that bears no legitimate connection” to the panel’s legislative purpose.
Forcing him to turn over the NDAs, he argued, “expose women who value their privacy, who have no known or public connection to Epstein, who bargained for confidentiality and have refused to release it, and who have no ability to protect themselves and their privacy before the committee.”
According to Mr. Garcia, Mr. Black paid millions to women “he engaged with sexually, some of whom were also connected to Epstein.”
Mr. Comer said there are “multiple” nondisclosure agreements Mr. Black signed with women.
“And we know this from communication with the Epstein survivors,” the congressman said.
He called the lawsuit “totally unexpected” and isn’t ready to file a contempt of Congress resolution against Mr. Black because it may hinder the panel’s efforts to get the nondisclosure agreements.
“I want those NDAs,” Mr. Comer said.
The panel has been probing Epstein, his associates and the government’s handling of his criminal case, for more than a year.
President Trump signed legislation forcing the government to hand over millions of pages of files related to the investigation of Epstein, who reportedly killed himself in a New York City jail cell in 2019. Some of the documents were withheld or redacted.
Mr. Black appears frequently in the Epstein files.
He walked out of a closed-door interview with House investigators in June after refusing to answer questions about the NDAs, and failed to appear for a second interview scheduled in July.
Mr. Black denies knowing anything about Epstein’s sex trafficking.
House lawmakers investigating Epstein have interviewed Bill Gates, former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and former Attorney General Pam Bondi, among many others.
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