WASHINGTON — “Please call Leon Black.” Limited time: Save 25% on NBC News subscriptionGet exclusive reporting, live Q&As and ad-free reading.That phrase appears more than 300 times in the Jeffrey Epstein investigative files released by the Justice Department, some sent in emails to Epstein by his personal assistant.Black, for years a powerful billionaire Wall Street player, and Epstein had a business relationship stretching back decades.“Leon, as you are well aware, there is little I won’t do for you or at least try to do as a friend,” Epstein wrote in one email to Black in 2014.
“And a great deal that I have already done (both known and some things that will need to remain unknown.)”Lawmakers are expected to press Black on Friday when he testifies before the House Oversight Committee investigating the federal government’s handling of the Epstein case.They are hoping to uncover more about the financial web Epstein wove that funded his sex trafficking operations and have said they believe Black may have played a role.
The former CEO of Apollo Global Management is the latest in a line of America’s powerful ruling class, including Bill and Hillary Clinton and Bill Gates, who have gone before Congress to discuss their ties to the man who preyed on women for years.Black’s attorney, Susan Estrich, said in a statement to NBC News that Black had called for an independent investigation of his relationship with Epstein.Estrich said a former federal prosecutor reviewed more than 60,000 documents and interviewed more than 20 people, including Black, as part of that investigation at the behest of Apollo and found that Black had only paid Epstein for tax and real estate planning advice for his family office.“The investigation further found that Epstein’s work had been vetted and approved by best-in-class law and accounting firms,” Estrich said in the statement.
“It also found that he had no awareness of the criminal activities that led to Epst...