Epstein's billionaire associate subpoenaed after refusing to answer oversight committee

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(The Center Square) – U.S. lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee appeared stunned after billionaire Leon Black, a close associate of the late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, walked out on his closed-door hearing without answering crucial questions.

The co-founder of private equity giant Apollo Global Management voluntarily appeared before lawmakers Friday to answer questions about his long-running relationship with Epstein.

Yet once lawmakers began probing him on the details of nondisclosure agreements related to Epstein’s victims, as well as Black’s own extramarital affairs and the abuse accusations against him, Black refused to answer and left.

Committee member Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., told reporters she found Black’s behavior “extremely telling.”

“Leon Black was arrogant. He was smug. He refused to answer the questions, but at the same time was emphasizing how he was being transparent because this was voluntary,” Ansari said. “But when pressed on critical questions about his own sexual abuse and the allegations against him and nondisclosure agreements, he absolutely refused to answer these questions.”

Given the financier’s noncompliance, committee Chairman James Comer, R-Kentucky, issued two subpoenas before the hearing concluded, requiring Black to disclose relevant NDAs to the committee and to appear before them again to testify under oath July 16.

“We want to know, was Jeffrey Epstein involved in the NDAs, was he involved in writing? Was he involved in awarding funds to the women for the NDAs? What was the reason for the NDAs?” Comer said afterward.

“He made a statement that it’s not uncommon for people to have NDAs — I don’t think it is common for people to have NDAs,” Comer added, wryly. “So this is very important for our investigation.”

The committee is expected to release the full interview transcript within the coming days, but excerpts obtained by the Wall Street Journal, CNBC and others quote Black as denying he had any knowledge of Epstein’s sex trafficking crimes until the latter was indicted in 2019.

“I was not involved with, and had no knowledge of, any of Epstein’s heinous conduct,” Black told lawmakers in his opening statement. “I have never been with an underage woman. I have never engaged in sex trafficking. I have never paid Epstein for access to women.”

Black also claimed that the $170 million he made in payments to Epstein from 2012 to 2017 was for “highly valuable and legitimate tax and estate planning services for my family office” and did not go toward funding any of Epstein’s “heinous conduct”.

Black resigned from his position as chief executive at Apollo Global Management in 2021 when his ties to Epstein came under public scrutiny, but denied any wrongdoing.

Committee Democrats in particular expressed disbelief that Black knew nothing of Epstein’s crimes, a claim echoed by other former associates of Epstein who have appeared before the committee for questioning.

“Mr. Black is a prominent businessman who was named thousands of times in the Department of Justice's Epstein files, and there are multiple allegations over the years that have been filed in civil suits against Mr. Black, as well as known survivors even to us on the committee who have come forward and alleged crimes against them, sexual crimes by Mr. Black,” Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., noted.

“Today before Mr. Black left the interview, he admitted that he lived close to Epstein. He often dined at his house. He went over for breakfast, for happy hours, attended impromptu dinners with world leaders, with academics, with scientists, and that Mr. Epstein handled his personal financial affairs,” Stansbury told reporters.

“It was also clear he served on his family foundation board, and it's also clear that Mr. Black knew of Epstein's past conviction and plea deal and also was unbothered by it.”

While Black admitted that he knew of Epstein's 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution, he believed it was an “isolated incident,” adding that Epstein told him a fake ID was involved.

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Virginia, told reporters that Black “had to have known about Jeffrey Epstein's crimes, given how close he was to Jeffrey Epstein.”

“I don't buy that he didn't know what Jeffrey Epstein was up to with all these young girls. I don't buy that he didn't know that Jeffrey Epstein was committing crimes all these years, and I think that he may have engaged in them himself based on what survivors have told us,” Subramanyam said.

“We have had many of these depositions and interviews, and this is the first time that someone actually walked out in the middle of it …This is also the first time I heard someone gush poetically about how smart and how great Jeffrey Epstein was,” the lawmaker added.

Subramanyam and other Democrats commended Comer for issuing the subpoenas.

Black’s appearance was the 16th interview the committee has conducted as part of its Epstein investigation. Major public figures such as former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, billionaire Les Wexner and billionaire Bill Gates have appeared for testimony.

All have denied knowledge of the sex trafficking conducted by Epstein and his close associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence. Epstein was found dead in his prison cell in 2019.