The House Oversight Committee will vote Tuesday on whether to hold billionaire investor Leon Black in contempt of Congress after he refused to comply with subpoenas tied to the panel’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
Committee Chairman James Comer announced Friday that the full committee will mark up a resolution recommending contempt charges against Black, who co-founded the private equity firm Apollo Global Management. Black stepped down as the firm’s CEO and Chairman in 2021 after his ties to Epstein became public.
Black had been scheduled to testify before the panel last week but did not appear, defying subpoenas issued in June. Those subpoenas came in the middle of a voluntary transcribed interview, after Black declined to answer certain questions. One subpoena ordered him to sit for a deposition; the other demanded he turn over nondisclosure agreements to the committee. Black responded last week by suing the committee to block both subpoenas.
“It doesn’t matter how wealthy, powerful, or connected you are, no one gets to pick and choose which lawful congressional subpoenas they will obey,” Comer said in a statement.
He added that the committee had “provided Mr. Black multiple opportunities to cooperate, yet he has refused to appear for a deposition and failed to produce subpoenaed documents relevant to our investigation.”
“After consulting with Committee members, we will defend Congress’s constitutional authority and take action to hold Mr. Black accountable for his continued defiance of lawful congressional subpoenas,” Comer continued.
A Long Financial Relationship
According to the House Oversight Committee, its investigation examines how the federal government failed Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s victims for decades, and how Epstein worked to build influence with prominent, wealthy figures to shield himself from scrutiny. The committee says Black had an extensive personal and financial relationship with Epstein spanning decades and paid him at least $158 million after Epstein was a registered sex offender. Other reporting has put the total figure Black paid Epstein for “tax and financial services” as high as $170 million.
Black’s fortune, built through Apollo Global Management, is estimated at roughly $13.8 billion. He also served as chairman of the Museum of Modern Art from 2018 to 2021. There have been reports that Epstein helped broker a nondisclosure agreement and financial settlement for Black following a reported affair with a Russian model.
It remains unknown whether Black ever flew on Epstein’s private plane or visited Epstein’s private island. Those unresolved questions, alongside the scale of the payments Black made to Epstein even after Epstein’s crimes were publicly known, are among the matters the committee says it wants answered.
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