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\n

Leon Black, a billionaire investor with ties to the late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, declined to show up for his scheduled transcribed interview Thursday with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee \u2014 choosing instead to file a lawsuit calling the panel\u2019s subpoenas for his participation \u201cinvalid.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argues that the subpoenas served to Black compelling his testimony and demanding he turn over certain non-disclosure agreements go beyond the committee\u2019s \u201cdelegated authority in seeking private information that bears no legitimate connection to [the committee’s] legislative purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Black’s escalation is likely to trigger a corresponding dramatic response from the Oversight Committee, where Republicans are still endeavoring to show they are taking their Epstein investigation seriously more than a year since its launch.<\/p>\n

House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said that Black\u2019s deposition will move forward with an empty chair this morning and that he will talk to his members about next steps.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a shame Leon Black is hiding behind litigation rather than provide answers to the American people,\u201d Comer said in a statement. \u201cOur investigation is examining how the federal government for decades failed survivors of Jeffery Epstein and [co-conspirator] Ghislaine Maxwell\u2019s crimes and how Mr. Epstein sought to curry favor with influential individuals to avoid scrutiny. Mr. Black\u2019s testimony is crucial to our investigation as he was one of Mr. Epstein\u2019s fee paying clients and has several nondisclosure agreements.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats are also eager to send a strong message that those who defy the panel now won’t be spared if the party retakes control of the House in 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy refusing to testify today, Leon Black is now defying two Congressional subpoenas. Black gave Jeffrey Epstein over $180 million over six years. He funded Epstein’s abuse and trafficking of women. Multiple women have also accused Black of sexual assault,\u201d said Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the Oversight Committee\u2019s top Democrat who is poised to take the gavel if Republicans lose their majority in the midterms.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis connections to Epstein and his unwillingness to cooperate are unacceptable,\u201d Garcia continued. \u201cWe must hold him in contempt immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Black, who founded Apollo Global Management, appeared in a closed door session with the Oversight Committee earlier this summer<\/u><\/a> to discuss his association with Epstein. As a result of that meeting, Black was slapped with a subpoena to produce certain non-disclosure agreements he signed with women tied to Epstein and told to come back for a second grilling.<\/p>\n

The panel has been counting on the NDAs to shed further light on how Epstein and his network were able to sexually exploit women and girls and evade liability for decades.<\/p>\n

Black has since produced one NDA between himself and a woman with whom he had an affair and to whom he paid $9.5 million. Comer called that insufficient, demanding Black turn over the others and threatening to pursue contempt proceedings<\/u><\/a> if Black did not cooperate.<\/p>\n

Black’s attorneys contend the subpoenas \u201cwould \u2026 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Susan Estrich, one of Black\u2019s lawyers, in a statement accused the Oversight Committee of going on \u201ca fishing expedition that oversteps its authority and completely ignores its responsibility. This is no longer about finding the truth about Epstein. It is about trying to destroy Mr. Black. We were left with no choice but to file this lawsuit in response to an abuse of Congressional power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Estrich added that Black continues to deny his knowledge of Epstein’s misconduct and \u201cfeels terrible for Epstein\u2019s victims.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leon Black, a billionaire investor with ties to the late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, declined to show up for his scheduled transcribed interview Thursday with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee \u2014 choosing instead to file a lawsuit calling the panel\u2019s subpoenas for his participation \u201cinvalid.\u201d The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27010\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}