Leon Black, then CEO of Apollo Global Management, at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, May 1, 2018.Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images Former Apollo Global Management CEO Leon Black sued the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Thursday, seeking to block subpoenas for multiple nondisclosure agreements he was a party to and to obtain more testimony from him as part of an investigation into his and others’ ties to notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Black was due to appear before the Oversight Committee on Thursday morning pursuant to a subpoena, but refused to do so. missing billionaire. Democrats on the panel called for Black to be formally held in contempt “immediately.” One of the Democrats, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, said that “Black made the women sign strict confidentiality agreements… to keep them quiet.” Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said that if it were up to him, “I would hold it in contempt right now.” But Comer added that he wanted to discuss the issue with the panel’s lawyers to avoid harming his chances of obtaining the NDAs. “I’m very disappointed,” Comer said. “This is unacceptable.” “We need those confidentiality agreements.” Black’s lawyers say the NDAs requested by the committee have nothing to do with his dealings with Epstein, and that Black had no knowledge of the crimes that led to the financial advisor’s arrest on federal child sex trafficking charges in 2019. The panel issued the subpoenas on June 26, just after Black refused to answer questions about the NDAs and walked out of an interview when he appeared for a closed-door meeting. “The Committee is on a fishing expedition that exceeds its authority,” one of the lawyers, Susan Estrich, said in a statement. “It’s no longer about finding the truth about Epstein. It’s about trying to destroy Mr. Black.” Estrich noted that Black had previously voluntarily appeared before the committee and said he also gave the panel “the only confidentiality agreement that Jeffrey Epstein knew of as part of Mr. Black’s cooperation with the Committee’s efforts to uncover the truth about Epstein.” “Mr. Black never abused a woman,” Estrich said. “He was never with an underage woman. He was never involved in sex trafficking. He never paid Epstein to have access to women. Epstein never blackmailed him.” Read more CNBC Politics and Policy Coverage Black’s lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington claims that the two subpoenas issued to Black are “invalid to the extent that they exceed” the committee’s “delegated authority to seek private information that bears no legitimate connection to the OGR’s legislative purpose.” “In addition, the subpoenas would also expose women who value their privacy, who have no known or public connection to Epstein, who negotiated confidentiality and have refused to disclose it, and who do not have the ability to protect themselves and their privacy before the Committee,” the lawsuit says. Black resigned as CEO of Apollo in March 2021, months earlier than originally planned, two months after the firm revealed that it had paid Epstein $158 million for tax and estate planning advice from 2012 to 2017 despite knowing that the financial advisor had pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting an underage girl in Florida for prostitution. Black testified before the House committee in June that “tax work was responsible for billions of dollars in savings.” Black also said then that Epstein deceived him out of more than $60 million in financial advisory fees by falsely claiming they were tax deductible. Epstein, 66, committed suicide in a federal prison in New York in August 2019, weeks after his arrest on federal charges. In a statement Thursday, he said, “It is a shame that Leon Black is hiding behind litigation instead of providing answers to the American people.” “Our investigation is examining how the federal government failed survivors of the crimes of Jeffery Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell for decades and how Mr. Epstein sought to curry favor with influential people to avoid scrutiny,” Comer said. Garcia, the top Democrat on the panel, said in a statement: “By refusing to testify today, Leon Black is now defying two congressional subpoenas.” Garcia said Black had paid millions of dollars to women he had sexual relations with, “some of whom were also connected to Epstein.” “Epstein’s abuse and trafficking of women. Several women have also accused Black of sexual assault,” Garcia said. “His connections to Epstein and his unwillingness to cooperate are unacceptable. We must hold him in contempt immediately.” Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.
