Billionaire Leon Black sues incoming Oversight chair Robert Garcia for US$7.25 million over Epstein remarks

Billionaire Leon Black sued Robert Garcia, the Democrat in line to chair the House Oversight Committee, for defamation on 4 November over television remarks that tied Black to Jeffrey Epstein's crimes.

Black filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking a jury trial and US$7.25 million in compensatory and punitive damages. It alleges that Garcia "has knowingly and willfully lied about Leon Black and defamed him". Black filed it the day after Democrats won both chambers of Congress. Garcia, currently the committee's ranking member, is expected to take the gavel when the new Congress convenes in January, along with the power to issue subpoenas in an inquiry that has pursued Black since March.

Garcia made the statements in a television interview weeks after Black's closed-door session with the committee on 26 June. He said "Leon Black is at the center of Jeffrey Epstein's crimes". He also said that Black was among the last people to deal with Epstein before Epstein's death in a Manhattan jail in August 2019. In the same interview he said he had spoken to survivors who credibly named Black as involved in the direct abuse of women.

Black has denied any role in Epstein's crimes, and Garcia's office did not respond to press inquiries on 4 November. Black's suit against the committee in September cites his June testimony. He told members then he had never abused a woman, never been with an underage woman, never engaged in sex trafficking and never paid Epstein for access to women.

Two subpoenas and a contempt vote

James Comer, the Republican chairman of the committee, wrote to Black on 3 March 2026. The letter compelled him to hand over nondisclosure agreements and to sit for a deposition on 16 July. At Black's request the committee moved the deposition to 3 September. Members said Black refused to answer questions about the agreements at the June session, and Garcia's office said he walked out when they were raised.

Black did not appear on 3 September. That morning he sued the committee instead, arguing that the subpoenas exceeded its powers because they sought private information unconnected to Epstein or to any legitimate legislative purpose. Garcia told reporters on the Capitol steps that the suit was intended to run down the clock before the election recess.

On 15 September the committee voted 41-0 to recommend holding Black in contempt of Congress. Comer said Black was "hiding behind litigation" to avoid answering questions. The full House approved the resolution by unanimous consent the next day and referred the matter to the Justice Department, which decides whether to prosecute.

Epstein's fees and the Trump connections

An independent review by the law firm Dechert, commissioned by Apollo Global Management, found that Black paid Epstein US$158 million for tax, estate-planning and other legitimate work. It concluded that Black was not involved in Epstein's criminal activity. Black stepped down as Apollo's chief executive in 2021 after the review was published. Committee lawyers told Black in June that the lawyer who conducted the review had a relationship with Epstein, and Black said he had not known.

Senate Finance Committee staff traced US$170 million in March 2025. Comer's office puts the figure at no less than US$158 million, all paid after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. Garcia told reporters in September that lawmakers knew of at least US$180 million. Comer said earlier in 2026 that Richard Kahn, Epstein's accountant for more than a decade, had testified that Black was among five clients who paid Epstein.

Ron Wyden, the senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, wrote to the House committee on 4 June 2026 that US$100 million of Black's payments moved between 2014 and 2017 without written contracts. He wrote that a further US$10 million passed through a charity his staff described as a sham, which let Black avoid disclosure and maximise tax deductions. Black paid the U.S. Virgin Islands US$62.5 million in 2023 to settle potential claims arising from the territory's own Epstein investigation.

Black contributed a poem to the album Ghislaine Maxwell compiled for Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003 and called Epstein his best friend. He told the committee in June that the two were not close and that he had valued Epstein's expertise and contacts. He also told members he knew nothing of Epstein's crimes until Epstein was charged in July 2019.

Trump nominated Black's son Benjamin in January 2025 to run the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, the government's overseas investment agency, and the Senate confirmed him) on 7 October 2025. Apollo lent Kushner Companies US$184 million in November 2017, while Black was its chairman and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner was a senior White House adviser, the New York Times found. Black also appears in a photograph from Trump's 1996 trip to Moscow to look at property deals, Bloomberg reported in 2019.

Ganieva, the investigators and the lawsuits

Records Wyden released show Epstein hired investigators from the firm Nardello & Co to follow Guzel Ganieva, a former model who had a relationship with Black, and arranged recordings of her meetings in Manhattan restaurants. Brad Karp, then chairman of the law firm Paul Weiss, exchanged details of a woman's movements with Epstein, including the licence plates of the car she left in. Epstein wrote to Karp a month later that Black wanted it established that the woman was a professional. Black paid about US$20 million to roughly a dozen women, part of it routed through Epstein, the New York Times reported.

Black has fought civil claims by women in New York courts since 2021. A woman suing under the pseudonym Jane Doe alleges in a pending federal case in Manhattan that Black raped her at Epstein's townhouse in 2002, when she was 16. Susan Estrich, Black's lawyer, called the suit frivolous and said he had never met the woman. In April 2026 a federal judge sanctioned the plaintiff's law firm, Wigdor, for misconduct but did not dismiss the case.

Ganieva, who accused Black of rape and sued him in 2021, lost her case in May 2023 when a New York state judge ruled that a nondisclosure agreement covered their relationship. Black's own racketeering suit against Ganieva and Wigdor was dismissed, and an appeals court upheld the dismissal in March 2023. No court has found that Black abused anyone.

Television interviews and House immunity

Article I of the U.S. Constitution bars members of Congress from being "questioned in any other place" for speech or debate in either House. In Hutchinson v. Proxmire in 1979, the Supreme Court held that the protection did not extend to press releases and newsletters in which Senator William Proxmire ridiculed a scientist's federal grant. Garcia made the remarks at issue in a broadcast interview, outside any committee proceeding. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky named Black on the House floor on 31 August among 14 people he said should be investigated and prosecuted as Epstein's co-conspirators, remarks the clause covers.

Under the Westfall Act, if the attorney general certifies that a federal employee was acting within the scope of his job, the United States replaces him as defendant. The Federal Tort Claims Act bars libel and slander claims against the government, so certified cases are normally dismissed. In 2006 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit applied that route in Council on American-Islamic Relations v. Ballenger, holding that a congressman speaking to a reporter about matters of public concern was doing his job.

Attorney General Todd Blanche decides on certification. Garcia has said he expects to subpoena Blanche on the first day of a Democratic majority. Blanche's department also holds the contempt referral against Black. If the department refuses to certify, Garcia can ask the court to do so.

The complaint's allegation that Garcia lied knowingly reflects the standard set in New York Times v. Sullivan in 1964. Under it, a public official or public figure must prove that the speaker knew a statement was false or acted with reckless disregard for whether it was true.

The January gavel

At 5.23pm Eastern time on 4 November, Garcia named the Epstein inquiry among four investigations the committee would pursue from January. The others cover the Trump family's business dealings, corporate corruption and the conduct of the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He said Democrats could sue on behalf of the House and seek civil contempt in the courts where the Justice Department declines to enforce subpoenas. Black's complaint became public shortly after 6.30pm.