Home Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., issued two subpoenas to Leon Black after Comer mentioned the personal fairness billionaire refused to reply among the committee’s questions on convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein throughout Black’s closed-door look earlier than the panel Friday.
Black, who was showing earlier than the committee as a part of its ongoing probe into the federal government’s investigation of Epstein, walked out of his transcribed interview throughout questioning.
Comer instructed reporters that the 2 subpoenas compel Black to seem for a deposition on July 16 in addition to produce purported nondisclosure agreements that he was questioned about.
“Throughout at this time’s voluntary transcribed interview, Mr. Black acknowledged he would not reply questions on NDAs. Solutions in regards to the phrases and substance of those NDAs are crucial to our investigation,” Comer mentioned. “We owe it to the American folks to supply transparency and guarantee accountability for survivors.”
“NDAs are between him and different ladies. We wish to know, was Jeffrey Epstein concerned within the NDAs? Was he concerned in writing? Was he concerned in awarding funds to the ladies for the NDAs? What was causing the NDA? We do not know every thing in regards to the NDAs, in order that’s crucial to our investigation, so the subpoenas have been issued. We count on to see [him] again right here in a number of weeks,” Comer mentioned.
“This is essential for our investigation,” Comer mentioned. “We knew for a very long time there have been NDAs on the market by numerous folks. Clearly, they’re very arduous to acquire, and with this subpoena, we count on to get these NDAs in hand.”
Requested about Black’s responses throughout the interview, Comer mentioned, “His response was that he wasn’t allowed to debate the phrases of the NDAs.”
Leon Black, a billionaire who was shut with Jeffrey Epstein, walks out of the Rayburn Home Workplace Constructing on the Capitol after his interview about Epstein with the Home Oversight Committee, in Washington, June 26, 2026.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP Picture
Rating committee member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., mentioned he agreed with Comer’s choice to concern the subpoenas.
“The NDAs are central to us understanding what really occurred. There are actual accusations, and there are survivors who’ve accused Mr. Black of horrific issues,” Garcia instructed reporters.
Black’s lawyer, Susan Estrich, claimed to reporters that the choice to serve Black with the subpoenas throughout the interview was “a premeditated political choice” and claimed that Epstein “had no involvement” with the purported nondisclosure agreements.
“They made a premeditated political choice to serve him with subpoenas after lower than an hour of questioning, and earlier than they even requested a single query about his authentic funds to Epstein,” she mentioned. “This was nothing greater than a deliberate political stunt. Mr. Epstein had no involvement with any NDAs, whether or not they exist or not.”
The newest in a collection of wealthy and highly effective folks questioned about their relationship with Epstein as a part of the Oversight panel’s probe, Black maintained a social relationship with Epstein because the mid-Nineties and finally paid him greater than $170 million for “tax and property planning recommendation,” based on the Senate Finance Committee.
Former CEO of Apollo International Administration Leon Black arrives to testify at a closed-door interview with the Home Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill, June 26, 2026 in Washington.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP Picture
Black has denied wrongdoing or data of Epstein’s crimes, although his monetary funds to Epstein served as a lifeline to the convicted intercourse offender within the years after Epstein’s 2008 prison sentence for soliciting a minor for prostitution.
Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., instructed reporters after Black’s look, “That is the primary time” a witness throughout this probe has walked out in the course of an interview.
“It is as a result of we had crucial questions on Leon Black’s previous with Jeffrey Epstein,” he mentioned. “That is additionally the primary time I heard somebody gush poetically about how good and the way nice Jeffrey Epstein was.”
“He was smug,” Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Az., mentioned of Black’s look. “He refused to reply the questions however on the identical time was emphasizing how he was being clear as a result of this was voluntary. However when pressed on crucial questions on his personal sexual abuse and the allegations towards him and nondisclosure agreements, he completely refused to reply these questions,” she mentioned.
Ansari mentioned Black was “talking fondly of Epstein whereas additionally claiming they weren’t shut.”
‘Bona fide recommendation’
In his look earlier than the committee Friday, Black mentioned he was unaware of Epstein’s “demonic life” and that the cash he paid Epstein was for authentic providers and “bona fide recommendation,” based on a duplicate of his opening remarks reviewed by ABC Information.
Black’s ready remarks throughout his closed-door interview forged him because the sufferer of “ugly and cruel” narratives round Epstein, saying he has been the topic of baseless allegations and conspiracy theories about Epstein and that “extraordinary harm has been performed to me and my household.”
“I want I had by no means met Epstein. I remorse ever doing enterprise with him. My affiliation with him, the frivolous however damaging litigation, the countless rumor mill, have created a poisonous setting for my spouse and household, which I deeply remorse,” the ready remarks mentioned.
Addressing the large sum of money he paid Epstein, Black, in his remarks, mentioned these have been authentic funds and that he was by no means blackmailed by Epstein.
“Let me state unequivocally that I’ve by no means abused a girl. I’ve by no means been with an underage lady. I’ve by no means engaged in intercourse trafficking. I’ve by no means paid Epstein for entry to ladies. I used to be by no means blackmailed by Epstein. I used to be not concerned with, and had no data of, any of Epstein’s heinous conduct,” his ready remarks mentioned.
Based on Black, Epstein lived a “Jekyll and Hyde” existence and that he, at first, solely noticed the constructive facet, together with his “unmatched community of relationships with people in finance, academia, science, politics.” Black, in his remarks, mentioned his relationship with Epstein started as private however grew over time to serving to handle his household funding workplace.
“With hindsight, I now see that Epstein exaggerated, embellished, manipulated, and outright lied — prolifically and with out concern for me or my household. And I now see that his deceit was not restricted to me but additionally prolonged to quite a few extremely subtle people,” Black’s ready remarks mentioned.
Whereas Black mentioned that Epstein “took credit score for different folks’s concepts” and made false claims about investments, Black additionally argued Epstein was capable of resolve “an enormous property downside” for him that “would have destroyed monumental worth.” Based on Black’s remarks, he initially thought he was paying Epstein $95 million in web charges, although that was really $158 million as a result of Epstein lied in regards to the tax deductibility of the cost.
Black additionally mentioned in his ready remarks that he was conscious of Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution, however that Epstein lied in regards to the nature of the crime.
“Epstein instructed me that it was an remoted incident ensuing from a pretend ID. 5 years after his conviction, I gave Epstein a second probability, as did many others. I want I had not,” he mentioned, based on his ready remarks.
Based on Black, he lower ties with Epstein in 2018 after Epstein did not repay most of a $30 million mortgage. Black mentioned he grew “uninterested in his relentless pursuit of an increasing number of cash from me for skilled providers.”
Whereas Black, based on his remarks, mentioned that he was “glad” to reply the committee’s questions, he famous that he’ll “not converse in regards to the private lives of grownup ladies” that he believes shouldn’t be linked to Epstein.
“I’m right here to voluntarily reply questions in regards to the work that Epstein did for me and for the providers for which I paid him. I’m not right here to reply questions on my private life which might be hurtful to my spouse, youngsters and household. And I can’t converse in regards to the private lives of grownup ladies who haven’t chosen, and don’t deserve, to be linked, by me or anybody else, to Epstein,” Black mentioned, per his remarks.
‘Essentially the most groundbreaking deposition’
Comer instructed reporters earlier than Friday’s proceedings that Black’s look “could possibly be a fairly vital” interview.
“So, of all of the witnesses which have come so far, this one has the potential to be essentially the most groundbreaking deposition, for my part,” Comer mentioned.
“There’s quite a lot of regarding issues within the paperwork. There are quite a lot of statements from the survivors which might be very regarding as effectively, with respect to Mr. Black,” Comer mentioned.
The chairman mentioned the committee would ask Black “a whole lot and a whole lot of questions on monetary transactions, about financial institution violations, about emails, paperwork, photos, and communication with survivors.”
Comer mentioned the committee’s investigation is “on a timeline.”
“This Congress will expire the tip of this yr, so we wish to definitely get performed as shortly as potential, mentioned Comer, who added that “we hope” appearing Legal professional Common Todd Blanche will sit for an interview.
“I am going to remind everybody the aim of our investigation to get the reality to the American folks and decide how the federal government failed the survivors by not prosecuting Epstein,” Comer mentioned.
Garcia instructed reporters previous to Black’s look that Epstein “wouldn’t have been capable of commit the horrific crimes with out the assist of Mr. Black.”
Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., mentioned, “We would like him to reply the powerful questions on what he knew about Jeffrey Epstein and whether or not he was concerned with among the crimes himself.”
“Leon Black was one in all Jeffrey Epstein’s major sources of revenue, flooding him with money at a time when he was already a registered intercourse offender. Black has not but provided a compelling clarification relating to the origination and execution of Epstein’s extraordinary compensation scheme for alleged tax recommendation,” Sen. Ron Wyden, the rating member of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote in a letter to the Home Oversight Committee earlier this month. The Senate Finance Committee is main its personal investigation of Epstein’s funds.
Former CEO of Apollo International Administration Leon Black arrives to testify at a closed-door interview with the Home Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill, June 26, 2026 in Washington.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photographs
Black has lengthy been scrutinized over his relationship with the disgraced financier — describing it as a “horrible mistake” — and was compelled out of his agency, Apollo International Administration, following an exterior investigation that exposed funds to Epstein totaling at the very least $158 million.
“Understanding all that I’ve discovered up to now two years about Epstein’s reprehensible and despicable conduct, I deeply remorse having had any involvement with him,” Black mentioned throughout a 2020 Apollo earnings name. “With the advantage of hindsight, working with him was a horrible mistake on my half. I’m not searching for to excuse that call, however I do consider it could be useful to convey some related information.”
Whereas the investigation concluded that Black and others have been conscious of Epstein’s 2008 conviction, a report summarizing its findings mentioned that Black was not “concerned in any means with Epstein’s felony actions at any time” or conscious of the “scope and particulars” of Epstein’s intercourse trafficking. Black has by no means been charged with a criminal offense.
“When Black first retained Epstein, he believed that Epstein had served his time for the initially charged offenses and believed that it was not inappropriate to offer Epstein a second probability, as many different outstanding figures in enterprise, science, politics and academia had performed,” the report mentioned.
‘Saving you from your self’
The discharge of the Division of Justice’s Epstein files earlier this yr forged extra scrutiny on Black, whose identify seems within the recordsdata greater than 8,000 occasions. Epstein at one level appeared to function a intermediary to pay $100,000 to a girl with whom Black allegedly had an affair, based on emails included within the recordsdata, and routinely served as a fixer for points involving his funds.
“Leon, as you’re effectively conscious, there may be little I will not do for you or at the very least attempt to do as a pal, and an important deal that I’ve already performed (each recognized and a few issues that might want to stay unknown),” Epstein wrote to Black in a 2014 electronic mail. In one other electronic mail in 2017, Epstein described his relationship with Black as “saving you from your self.”
In a press release to ABC Information, Black’s lawyer Susan Estrich pointed to the exterior investigation performed for Apollo that discovered Black “had no consciousness of the felony actions that led to Epstein’s arrest in 2019” and famous that Black has referred to as for an unbiased investigation of his relationship with Epstein.
Wyden of the Senate Finance Committee has referred to as on the Home Oversight members to scrutinize the $170 million that Black paid Epstein between 2012 and 2017 for purported tax and property planning. Based on Wyden, these funds are sixty occasions greater than what Epstein paid his different tax and property professionals throughout the identical timeframe.
“Black is a well-advised businessman with entry to classy attorneys, but it seems Epstein was capable of shake him down for cash that he wasn’t legally owed. This means that Epstein could have extorted Black or carried out different unseemly duties on his behalf,” Wyden wrote earlier this month.
Attorneys for Black have pushed again towards Wyden’s accusations, accusing him of harassment and saying that the billionaire has cooperated “voluntarily and with out compulsion.”
“We’re conscious of no different personal citizen subjected to extra written requests from you over the identical interval,” Black’s attorneys wrote in an April 2026 letter to Wyden. “Your continued makes an attempt to invade into issues pertaining to Mr. Black’s private life — with out the assist of any authentic legislative objective — seem focused to unfairly harass Mr. Black in a fashion that fully disregards the right scope of Congress’s investigative powers.”
Based on the 2021 exterior report, Epstein was paid proportionally to the sum of money he saved Black and that Epstein “supplied recommendation that conferred greater than $1 billion and as a lot as $2 billion or extra in worth to Black”; nevertheless, the report additionally acknowledged that Epstein’s recommendation was usually not helpful and that he was “typically a disruptive and caustic pressure.”
The exterior report mentioned investigators discovered “no proof suggesting that Black ever compensated Epstein for any service aside from Epstein’s authentic recommendation on belief and property planning” and different points.
