House Oversight votes to hold billionaire Leon Black in contempt of Congress in Epstein inquiry
The House Oversight Committee voted Tuesday to hold billionaire Leon Black in contempt of Congress for defying two subpoenas that demanded he appear for a deposition as well as turn over documents lawmakers believe are pertinent to the panel's inquiry into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The unanimous voted was 41-0. The contempt resolution now heads to the House floor for consideration.
Black bucked a committee subpoena calling on him to testify under oath at a closed-door deposition on Sept. 3, as well as turn over nondisclosure agreements that the committee is seeking under subpoena, as part of the panel's ongoing probe into the government's handling of the investigations into Epstein.
"He was issued a lawful subpoena, and he didn't show," Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told reporters Tuesday morning. "So we have a lot of questions for him. This is an investigation that's very serious."
Comer told ABC News that he expects a floor vote on the contempt resolution this week before lawmakers leave Thursday to campaign for the midterms.
However, he deferred to GOP leadership to make the call following the markup Tuesday. Speaker Mike Johnson has not said when the House will consider the contempt resolution.
"Holding Leon Black in contempt of Congress is a critical step in the fight for justice for the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein," Rep. Robert Garcia, the committee's ranking Democrat, said in a statement. "He failed to appear for his deposition and has refused to provide critical information to this Committee. The House must now vote to hold him in contempt."
Comer, who is named in a countersuit from Black, said the Epstein investigation and the demand for Black's testimony are both bipartisan.
"So we've tried everywhere in the world to get him in, as well as to see some documents that we've subpoenaed and refused to show. So we're going to treat him just like we've treated everyone else that defied a lawful congressional subpoena," Comer said.
Black's attorneys, Susan Estrich and Aaron Cutler, called the contempt markup "a complete abomination."
"This is retaliation -- plain and simple," Black's lawyers wrote in a statement. "We have the constitutional right to sue Chairman Comer and the Committee because the subpoenas issued were illegitimate, illegal and a textbook abuse of power designed to bully and destroy legal protections of private citizens."
In a Tuesday letter to Comer and Garcia, Black's lawyers asked that consideration of the contempt resolution be postponed until the courts have fully ruled on his legal challenges.
"Fairness to Mr. Black, respect for the Committee's institutional responsibilities, and the integrity of the congressional contempt process require postponement," the letter states.
Black, in his lawsuit, is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief preventing the committee from compelling compliance with the subpoenas.
Black, who maintained a social relationship with Epstein since the mid-1990s and eventually paid him more than $170 million for "tax and estate planning advice," according to the Senate Finance Committee, appeared voluntarily before the Oversight panel in June -- before prematurely leaving the closed-door interview.
Black has denied wrongdoing or knowledge of Epstein's crimes, though his financial payments to the convicted sex offender served as a lifeline in the years following Epstein's 2008 prison sentence for soliciting a minor for prostitution.
