Leon Black, a billionaire investor who counts among the world’s top art collectors, has sued the House Oversight Committee, alleging that its subpoenas to testify in its investigation into the convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein were “invalid.”
Epstein’s friendship with Black has been well-documented. Black, who has repeatedly appeared on the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list, provided Epstein with financial guidance while he was still CEO of Apollo Global Management, an investment firm that he departed as Epstein-related scrutiny mounted in 2021. That same year, Black stepped down as the board chair of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where he remains a trustee.
Black initially sought to distance himself from Epstein, though investigators have repeatedly drawn attention to connections between the two. Black paid $62.5 million to the Virgin Islands in 2023 to settle all Epstein-related claims. He has repeatedly denied involvement in and knowledge of Epstein’s sex crimes. Black has also been accused of sexual assault by multiple women, allegations that he also previously denied.
His representative issued another denial this week, telling CNBC, “Mr. Black never abused a woman. He never was with an underage woman. He never engaged in sex trafficking. He never paid Epstein for access to women. He was never blackmailed by Epstein.”
In an extensive New York Times investigation from earlier this year, the publication reported that Epstein “essentially served as a fixer whose services went beyond modernizing Mr. Black’s finances or reducing his taxes.”
Epstein-related files released by the Justice Department early this year featured numerous documents related to Black, including one that appeared to reveal the investor’s entire art collection. Black is one of many art-related figures to have appeared in those files.
Black formerly appeared in an interview with the House Oversight Committee in June, but he left it early. That same day, the committee issued two subpoenas that demanded that he testify under oath and that he answer questions about NDAs with women. He was supposed to testify on Thursday, the same day that his lawsuit was filed.
In that lawsuit, Black alleged that the subpoenas “would also expose women who value their privacy, who have no known or public connection to Epstein, who bargained for confidentiality and have refused to release it, and who have no ability to protect themselves and their privacy before the Committee.” A lawyer for Epstein told the Times that the House Oversight Committee was “trying to destroy Mr. Black” with what she described as a “fishing expedition.”
James Comer, a Republican Representative from Kentucky who chairs the committee, accused Black of “hiding behind litigation rather than provide answers to the American people” in a statement.
According to the Times, Comer told members of the press assembled in the Capitol, “I would hold him in contempt right now.”
