Non-public fairness billionaire Leon Black filed a lawsuit Thursday in federal courtroom towards the Home Oversight Committee and Chairman James Comer earlier than failing to seem below subpoena for a deposition below oath earlier than the panel as a part of its probe into the federal government’s investigation of convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.
After Black filed the go well with and failed to seem for the deposition, Comer signaled that the committee might transfer to carry Black in contempt of Congress — however stated he desires to achieve consensus and study the authorized path forward earlier than continuing.
“That is unacceptable,” Comer, R-Ky., stated. “We’re very disillusioned. I do not suppose I want to inform anybody in right here how necessary of a witness Mr. Black is to this investigation. So we will huddle up as a committee and discuss subsequent steps with respect to Mr. Black, and we’ll go from there.”
“I might maintain him in contempt proper now,” Comer added. “Of all of the highly effective billionaires and political folks we introduced in for interviews and depositions, that is the primary time anybody’s filed go well with. I do not need to do something to hurt our possibilities in courtroom.”
In June, the panel issued subpoenas to Black after he appeared for a transcribed interview and refused to reply questions. The subpoenas referred to as for his look for a deposition, in addition to the manufacturing of purported nondisclosure agreements that Epstein survivors have mentioned with committee investigators.
Black’s lawsuit, filed within the U.S. District Courtroom for the District of Columbia, asserts the subpoenas are “invalid to the extent they exceed OGR’s delegated authority in in search of personal info that bears no legit connection to OGR’s legislative goal.”
Black’s attorneys additionally contend that the subpoenas would additionally “expose ladies who worth their privateness,” who haven’t any identified or public connection to Epstein — whereas contending that the committee lacks statutory authority to implement its subpoenas in federal courtroom.
Leon Black arrives for a closed-door interview with the Home Oversight Committee on the Capitol in Washington, June 26, 2026.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP Picture
Black is in search of declaratory and injunctive reduction stopping the committee from compelling compliance with the subpoenas.
“The Committee is on a fishing expedition that oversteps its authority and fully ignores its duty,” stated Black’s legal professional, Susan Estrich. “That is not about discovering the reality about Epstein. It’s about attempting to destroy Mr. Black. We had been left with no selection however to file this lawsuit in response to an abuse of Congressional energy.”
Black, who maintained a social relationship with Epstein because the mid-Nineties and ultimately paid him greater than $170 million for “tax and property planning recommendation,” in line with the Senate Finance Committee, appeared in June earlier than the Oversight panel as a part of its ongoing Epstein probe.
Black has denied wrongdoing or data of Epstein’s crimes, although his monetary funds to Epstein served as a lifeline to the convicted intercourse offender within the years after Epstein’s 2008 prison sentence for soliciting a minor for prostitution.
With time operating quick on the 119th Congress, Comer and Rep. Robert Garcia, the rating Democrat on the Oversight Committee, each imagine Black is attempting to expire the clock — complicating the committee’s effort to conclude its investigation earlier than the top of the 119th Congress.
“Clearly, we’re operating up towards the clock on the finish of this Congress, I am certain his authorized group is aware of that. So we have to be good from right here on in,” Comer stated.
“What he is attempting to do is to sluggish the method down of getting us the knowledge,” Garcia, D-Calif., stated. “He is very conscious that Comer not goes to be the chairperson. However what Mr. Black ought to perceive is that we are going to be much more aggressive than Chairman Comer because it pertains to his testimony.”
“Leon Black supplied over $180 million to Jeffrey Epstein. $180 million, and he has but to inform the committee or the general public as to precisely what that funded and why he did it,” Garcia stated.
