Key facts
- The House voted to hold Leon Black in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with subpoenas.
- Black declined to hand over all non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) that reference Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell.
- Rep. James Comer proposed the Survivor's Voice Protection Act, which would void NDAs that prohibit victims of sexual abuse from disclosing their experiences.
- The proposed bill would also create a fiduciary duty to inform law enforcement about suspected sexual grooming of minors.
- Black sued the House Oversight Committee, arguing the subpoenas lacked a valid legislative purpose.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to find billionaire Leon Black in contempt of Congress and refer the case to the Justice Department after he declined to comply with subpoenas related to a probe into late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Justice Department stated it takes allegations of contempt of Congress seriously and will review the referral carefully.
Black, who co-founded Apollo Global Management, had previously appeared voluntarily before the committee in June, where he denied abusing women or knowing about Epstein's conduct. His lawyers stated that he provided the committee with the only confidentiality agreement Jeffrey Epstein knew about as part of Black's cooperation, but the committee continued to insist on looking for information that does not exist. Black stepped down from his chief executive role at Apollo in 2021 after an external law firm found he had paid Epstein $158 million for tax and estate planning.
Separately, Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, introduced a bill called the Survivor's Voice Protection Act. Inspired by the Epstein probe, the bill aims to void non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) that silence victims of sexual abuse and would create a duty to inform law enforcement about suspected sexual grooming of minors. Many states have banned NDAs in sexual abuse cases, but no federal ban currently exists.