Billionaire Leon Black walked out of a congressional deposition Friday after refusing to answer questions about non-disclosure agreements tied to Jeffrey Epstein — the same man Black admits paying $158 million while claiming he never knew about the sex trafficking happening right under his nose.
The House Oversight Committee is finally pulling at the Epstein web, and what's coming loose is the same old story: a man worth $13 billion, by Forbes' estimate, who wrote nine-figure checks to a convicted sex offender and faces zero criminal consequences. The same elites who lecture working Americans on morality protect their own.
Black's defense before the committee was rehearsed and revealing. "I knew Jekyll. I didn't know Hyde," he said in his opening statement, as reported by multiple outlets. He denied ever abusing a woman, being with an underage woman, engaging in sex trafficking, paying Epstein for access to women, or being blackmailed. He said the $158 million — later estimates put it at $170 million — was for "highly valuable and legitimate tax and estate planning services." A prior investigation by the law firm Dechert, which Black himself commissioned, concluded Epstein's work was "responsible for billions of dollars in savings."
That's the story: $158 million in "tax and estate planning" to a man who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from a minor. Black said he thought that conviction was an "isolated incident" and kept doing business with Epstein for another decade. He told the committee Epstein "solved a massive estate problem for me, that none of the experts and lawyers I consulted had been able to solve."
Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, a Virginia Democrat, wasn't buying it: "This is also the first time I heard someone gush poetically about how smart and how great Jeffrey Epstein was."
Then came the walkout. Chairman James Comer told reporters Black refused to answer questions about NDAs he's party to — agreements Comer said the committee believes Black signed with some of Epstein's victims. Comer issued two subpoenas on the spot, one for the NDAs and one for a July 16 deposition. Black took a long break and left.
"This is the first time that someone actually walked out in the middle of an interview, and it's because we had very important questions about Leon Black's past with Jeffrey Epstein," Subramanyam said. Rep. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona called Black "arrogant" and "smug."
Black's lawyer, Susan Estrich, called the subpoenas "a premeditated political decision" and repeated Black's denials verbatim. CNBC noted that Black also claimed Epstein duped him out of more than $60 million by falsely telling him advisory fees were tax-deductible — a curious admission from a man whose entire defense rests on the claim that Epstein provided legitimate, valuable services.
CNBC framed Black's departure matter-of-factly. Forbes buried the walkout deep in its live updates and led with Black's denials. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, via the AP, played it straight but gave more weight to Comer's "groundbreaking" characterization. None of the three led with the most damning detail: a billionaire who paid a sex trafficker nine figures refused to say whether he bought victims' silence, and walked out when pressed.
Black is the 16th person to appear before the committee's Epstein investigation. The deposition was closed-door; a transcript may be released in coming days. Comer called it potentially the most significant yet. The open question is whether any of it will produce accountability — or just another round of denials, NDAs, and billionaires walking free.
