House panel recommends Leon Black contempt holding over Epstein subpoenas

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted unanimously on Tuesday to recommend that the full House hold former Apollo Global Management CEO Leon Black in contempt of Congress for his refusal to comply with subpoenas issued as part of the panel’s probe of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associates.

The 41-0 vote on the contempt resolution came nearly two weeks after Black refused to give further testimony to the committee and to comply with a subpoena seeking multiple nondisclosure agreements that the billionaire was a party to.

Black sued the committee on Sept. 3 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeking to block enforcement of the subpoenas.

“Subpoenas are not suggestions; they carry the force of law and require full compliance,” Oversight Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said at a meeting of the committee.

“We have no choice but to hold him in contempt,” Comer said.

Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the ranking Democrat on the panel, said, “We should not allow Leon Black to defy congressional subpoenas.”

“Our investigation is about fighting for the survivors of Epstein’s abuse, and we’re going to develop reforms and legal changes to ensure the system that allowed Jeffrey Epstein and his billionaire friends to continue their activities for years comes to an end,” Garcia said.

“Unfortunately, billionaires like Leon Black believe that they are above the law,” Garcia said.

Black’s lawyers, Susan Estrich and Aaron Cutler, earlier Tuesday blasted the committee for its expected vote, and asked the panel to postpone taking that step.

“This Committee mark-up and contempt resolution is a complete abomination,” the lawyers said in a statement. “The Committee under the leadership of Chairman James Comer and Ranking Member Robert Garcia has lost sight of its legislative purpose and is abusing its power.”

“This is retaliation — plain and simple,” Black’s attorneys said. “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.”

Black’s lawyers, in a letter to Comer and Garcia said they were submitting a complaint Tuesday to the Office of Congressional Conduct seeking an investigation into Comer’s conduct “that bears directly on the factual foundation and integrity of the contemplated contempt proceeding.”

The complaint alleges that before Black’s scheduled Sept. 3 deposition by the committee, “Chairman Comer engaged in what should be viewed as a violation of the Rules of the House of Representatives relating to the deposition, especially on the basis of the business meeting scheduled for September 15, 2026,” the…