By Nolan D. McCaskill
WASHINGTON, June 26 (Reuters) – A congressional panel subpoenaed billionaire investor Leon Black on Friday seeking information about non-disclosure agreements with victims of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and compelling his appearance for a deposition.
Black appeared on Friday for a voluntary private interview with the panel, which is investigating the federal government’s Epstein probe. He said he had no involvement or knowledge of what he referred to as Epstein’s “heinous conduct.”
Republican Representative James Comer of Kentucky, chair of the House of Representatives’ Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the subpoenas were “a result of refusing to answer specific questions about NDAs and the terms.”
“We believe that information is vital to our investigation,” he said.
Susan Estrich, Black’s attorney, said the subpoenas were served before the committee had asked her client any questions about his payments to Epstein.
“This was nothing more than a planned political stunt,” she said of the subpoenas. “Mr. Epstein had no involvement with any NDAs, whether they exist or not.”
In his opening statement to the committee, Black said he never abused women or engaged in sex trafficking and had never been with underage women.
“I have never paid Epstein for access to women,” he said. “I was never blackmailed by Epstein.”
PANEL SUBPOENAS BLACK TO TESTIFY UNDER OATH
Black is the latest individual connected to Epstein to appear before the panel, which ordered him to come back on July 16 to testify under oath.
Epstein, a prominent financier who socialized with many political and business leaders, pleaded guilty in 2008 to state prostitution charges and served 13 months in jail.
He was arrested again in 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking of minors. His 2019 death in a Manhattan jail cell was ruled a suicide.
Black stepped down as the head of private equity firm Apollo Global Management in 2021 after a review by an outside law firm found he had paid Epstein $158 million for tax and estate planning. He also paid $62.5 million to the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2023 to avoid any legal claims tied to an Epstein-related investigation.
Black has faced several lawsuits from women alleging sexual abuse. Two were dismissed and a third is ongoing. Black has denied all allegations and has not been criminally charged.
Ahead of the interview, Comer said the panel had hundreds of questions for Black about financial transactions and communication with survivors.
“Of all the witnesses that have come thus far, this one has the potential to be the most groundbreaking,” he told reporters.
Black told the committee he would voluntarily answer questions about his payments to Epstein and the work he provided but would not discuss his personal life.
Committee members said Black refused to answer questions about victims of Epstein’s abuse and NDAs, and that he walked out during the middle of the interview.
Representative Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, said it was important that the panel gain access to the non-disclosure agreements and interview Black under oath.
“When we started asking questions about the women, the survivors, NDAs that Mr. Black clearly has facilitated, he wouldn’t answer those questions,” Garcia told reporters after the interview. “Without answers there, we’re not going to have justice for the survivors and [be] able to move our investigation forward.”
Black testified that he had known Epstein for 18 years before giving him a dime. He said Epstein helped him to solve a “massive estate problem.”
Black said he was aware of Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea but was told “it was an isolated incident resulting from a fake ID.” He said he regretted giving Epstein a second chance in 2013 and severed ties in 2018 “after more than a year of increasing turmoil in our professional arrangements.”
(Reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill; Editing by Andy Sullivan and Edmund Klamann)
