The House Oversight Committee voted unanimously 41-0 Tuesday to recommend billionaire investor Leon Black be held in contempt of Congress for not fully cooperating with the panel’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
It marks an escalation in an already contentious standoff, where Black defied two congressional subpoenas, refused to appear for a transcribed interview and then sued the committee for allegedly “overstep[ing] its authority.”
“Subpoenas are not suggestions. They carry the force of law and require full compliance,” said Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), later noting that Black gave the committee “no choice but to hold him in contempt” after ignoring the subpoenas.
Black has been a target of the committee’s Epstein probe for the personal and financial relationship he maintained with the late convicted sex trafficker, which included a $158 million payment not long after Epstein first became a registered sex offender.
He met with the committee in May for a transcribed interview but declined to speak at length about nondisclosure agreements he entered into with women tied to Epstein. As a result, the panel subpoenaed him to turn over those documents, to which Black responded by refusing to submit all those in his possession and then skipping a scheduled appearance before the panel slated for Sept. 3 — suing the committee instead.
Black’s lawyers, Susan Estrich and Aaron Cutler, sought to delay the contempt proceedings and decried the committee’s decision to move forward.
“This entire charade is about politics and ambition. Given our litigation against Chairman Comer and the Committee, the possible ethics violations by Chairman Comer, and the false and potentially libelous and defamatory statements by Ranking Member Garcia, there were more than enough reasons to postpone this mark-up and contempt resolution,” the attorneys said. “Yet, they persisted because they were willing to blindly and recklessly tear down a wealthy man just because they can.”
The contempt resolution now heads to the full House, which also must vote on whether to refer the matter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia for possible indictment.
Comer said it was now up to GOP leadership whether it would schedule the resolution for consideration before the House leaves at the end of the week for recess until after the midterms. A spokesperson for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) did not immediately return a request for comment.
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