More than a dozen survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse praised the House oversight committee for unanimously voting to recommend that billionaire investor Leon Black be held in contempt for refusing to comply with subpoenas by the panel seeking his testimony and nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) as part of its investigation into Epstein.
“We commend Chairman Comer for showing real resolve in pursuing accountability in the Epstein investigation,” the survivors said in a statement. They said that the ۴۱-۰ vote sends a “clear message that wealth and influence do not put anyone beyond the reach of congressional oversight”.
“Survivors have fought for years to bring the truth about Epstein’s network into the open and have helped create this moment of accountability,” they added. “Congress now has an opportunity to build on that work by following the investigative leads contained in the Epstein files wherever they go and demanding answers from the powerful people connected to them.”
The vote on Tuesday marked the latest escalation in the dispute between the committee and Black, whose name came up repeatedly in the Epstein files, and who, as reported by the New York Times, paid Epstein a total of $۱۷۰m for what he described as tax and estate planning services from ۲۰۱۳ to ۲۰۱۷. The contempt resolution now goes to the full House for consideration, if speaker Mike Johnson permits a vote.
Black has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and said he had no knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activities.
He voluntarily appeared before the committee for a transcribed interview in June, but the session ended abruptly after lawmakers from both parties said that Black refused to answer questions about NDAs. The committee, chaired by Republican representative James Comer, then issued two subpoenas: one demanding that Black produce all NDAs “to which he is a party” and another requiring him to appear before the committee again for a deposition.
Black did not appear for his scheduled ۳ September deposition and did not produce all of the NDAs sought by the committee. He instead sued Comer and the committee, arguing that the subpoenas were “invalid” and exceeded the committee’s “delegated authority in seeking private information that bears no legitimate connection” to its legislative purpose. He also argued that the subpoenas would “expose women who value their privacy, who have no known or public connection to Epstein”.
Attorneys representing Black had asked for a postponement of the committee’s markup earlier on Tuesday, and described it as a “complete abomination”.
Black’s attorneys said on Tuesday that the committee under Comer and representative Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, “has lost sight of its legislative purpose and is abusing its power”.
The lawyers also described the subpoenas as “illegitimate, illegal and a textbook abuse of power designed to bully and destroy legal protections of private citizens” and reiterated that Black “never abused a woman”, “was never blackmailed by Epstein” and “had no knowledge of any of Epstein’s heinous conduct”.
On Wednesday, a day after the committee’s vote, Comer announced the introduction of the Survivor’s Voice Protection Act, legislation his office said would ensure “survivors can speak freely about sexual abuse, even if they signed a nondisclosure agreement.”
According to Comer’s office, the bill would also create “accountability for trusted individuals to protect minors by establishing an obligation to report suspected grooming behavior to law enforcement”.
The legislation is a “result of the Oversight Committee’s review of the federal investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s crimes”, his office added.
In a statement on Wednesday, Comer said that “the federal government for decades failed the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s crimes. We sadly cannot undue the harm and abuse inflicted upon these women. However, we have an obligation to take action to reform our laws to ensure survivors are protected and abusers can be held accountable.”
“During our investigation, we’ve learned how powerful men weaponized nondisclosure agreements to silence survivors of sexual abuse,” he continued. “
Republican representatives Nancy Mace, Virginia Foxx, Lauren Boebert and Anna Paulina Luna joined the bill as original cosponsors.
The committee says that it has conducted ۱۹ depositions and transcribed interviews thus far as part of its review of the federal government’s investigation of Epstein and Maxwell, and that it has released around ۶۵,۰۰۰ pages of documents from the Epstein estate, US Department of Justice, and interview transcripts, and also obtained Epstein’s bank records.
Additionally, in June, Comer referred two men to the Department of Justice for further investigation after Sarah Kellen, a former assistant of Epstein’s, alleged that she was sexually assaulted by them in the years that she worked for Epstein. Neither men have been charged with any crime related to Epstein, and both have denied any wrongdoing and the allegations against them.
Over the summer, the Guardian asked the DoJ for an update on this, to which a DoJ spokesperson told the Guardian that they had forwarded the letter from Comer about the two individuals to the FBI.
“If, during the course of their review, FBI encounters of evidence of a federal crime, they will investigate that matter,” a DoJ spokesperson told the Guardian in July. When asked for an update in late August, the DoJ spokesperson said that the July statement “still stands”.
The FBI did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Guardian this month about the matter.
