House votes to hold ex-Epstein associate Leon Black in contempt

WASHINGTON — The US House of Representatives voted to hold Leon Black in contempt of Congress on Wednesday after the ex-hedge fund manager and associate of Jeffrey Epstein ignored subpoenas for further testimony and information.The House passed the contempt resolution by unanimous consent after it had advanced out of the Oversight Committee in a bipartisan vote on Tuesday.“No one is above the law.Leon Black defied two subpoenas, and the U.S.

House of Representatives acted swiftly to find him in contempt of Congress,” said House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.).“We will continue to seek transparency for the American people and justice for survivors in our investigation of the federal government’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell criminal cases.”Black’s attorneys Susan Estrich and Aaron Cutler responded in a statement that the vote was “an outrageous action that ignores the facts and the truth about Mr.Black.”“To be clear, our lawsuit shows the Committee and Chairman Comer’s abused their Congressional power and broke the law.

We believe that our confidential ethics complaint will further show that Chairman Comer violated the rules of the House,” they said.“Mr.Black has cooperated with the Committee by voluntarily appearing to answer questions in a transcribed interview.

Despite being misled about the intent of that interview, he then fully complied with the Committee’s subpoena related to Epstein, consistent with the stated legislative purpose of the Committee’s investigation, as described by Chairman Comer,” the attorneys added.“Mr.Black provided the Committee with the only confidentiality agreement that Jeffrey Epstein knew about as part of Mr.

Black’s cooperation with the Committee’s efforts to ferret out the truth about Epstein.He also testified to this fact.

We also told them that Ghislaine Maxwell had absolutely nothing to do with any of the agreements,” they continued.“The Commi...