Leon Black, the billionaire investor, escalated his fight with a congressional committee investigating Jeffrey Epstein and his network of powerful associates on Thursday, when he refused to show up for a scheduled deposition.
Instead he filed a lawsuit challenging two subpoenas that the panel served him in June.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, said the subpoenas were “invalid” and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform had exceeded its authority in seeking information about nondisclosure agreements that Mr. Black might have entered into with women.
Mr. Black’s lawsuit said unnamed women and others “whom he has or may have agreements” with had “bargained for confidentiality.” These people, the lawsuit, “want no association with the Epstein scandal.”
The Oversight Committee issued the subpoenas after Mr. Black refused to answer the panel’s questions during a voluntary interview in June about nondisclosure agreements he had signed with women. The committee believes some of those women may have been linked to Mr. Epstein, the now deceased financier and notorious sex offender. The subpoenas required him to turn over the so-called NDAs and testify under oath on Thursday — both of which Mr. Black refused to do.
This is the first time anyone called to testify before the Oversight Committee in its Epstein investigation has gone to federal court to challenge its authority. Mr. Black’s lawsuit against the subpoena raises the question of whether the committee led by Representative James R. Comer, Republican of Kentucky, will vote to hold Mr. Black in contempt.
“It’s a shame Leon Black is hiding behind litigation rather than provide answers to the American people,” Mr. Comer said in a statement. “Mr. Black’s testimony is crucial to our investigation as he was one of Mr. Epstein’s fee paying clients and has several nondisclosure agreements.”
Mr. Comer added that the hearing would take place with “an empty chair for Mr. Black” and that the committee would consider its “next steps.”
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Representative Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, promptly issued a statement indicating that the committee should immediately hold Mr. Black in contempt.
Mr. Black paid Mr. Epstein $170 million for what he described as traditional tax and estate planning services from 2013 to 2017, and he lent him $30 million, according to congressional records and government documents.
Mr. Black has repeatedly said he knew nothing about Mr. Epstein’s decades -ong sexual abuse of teenage girls and young women.
The release of millions of pages of Epstein-related emails and documents by the Justice Department this year shed more light on Mr. Epstein’s relationship with Mr. Black. Mr. Epstein advised Mr. Black on how to address issues that had arisen with several women with whom Mr. Black had sexual affairs. And Mr. Black paid about $20 million to a dozen women, according to the files and notes taken by congressional investigators that were previously shared with The New York Times.
Susan Estrich, an attorney for Mr. Black, said in a statement that the Oversight Committee was on a “fishing expedition” and “trying to destroy Mr. Black.” She said the committee was seeking information that had nothing to do with Mr. Epstein and “looking for information that does not exist.”
The lawsuit said it was inappropriate for the committee to seek any confidentiality agreements Mr. Black might have reached with women because the committee had given the women “no notice” and “no way to be heard.”
In January, the committee moved to hold former President Bill Clinton and former Senator Hillary Clinton in contempt for initially refusing to testify about Mr. Epstein. But faced with that threat, the Clintons ultimately complied before the House could vote on the matter.
The post Leon Black Sues Congressional Panel Investigating Epstein appeared first on New York Times.
