The US House Oversight Committee has voted unanimously to recommend holding billionaire investor Leon Black in contempt of Congress over his refusal to comply with subpoenas linked to its investigation into the late Jeffrey Epstein.
The 41-0 vote concerns subpoenas requiring Mr Black to appear before the committee on 3 September and provide nondisclosure agreements. He is challenging the demands in court.
The resolution will now go to the full House, which must decide whether to refer the matter to the Justice Department for possible prosecution. Any decision on bringing charges would rest with the department.
It was unclear when the House would consider the measure, with lawmakers entering their final week in session before returning after Election Day.
James Comer, the committee’s Republican chairman, issued the subpoenas after Mr Black abruptly ended a voluntary, closed-door interview with the panel in June. He had refused to answer questions about nondisclosure agreements.
Mr Black, co-founder of Apollo Global Management, employed Epstein as a wealth management adviser and paid him substantial sums for tax and estate planning services. Emails released last year indicated that Mr Black had also discussed personal matters with Epstein, including extramarital affairs that resulted in nondisclosure agreements.
Mr Black told lawmakers in June that he had met Epstein in the 1990s and began paying him for financial advice in 2013. He has said he regrets employing him, accusing Epstein of repeatedly lying and “falsely claiming to have been involved in decisions about investments”.
His lawyers have said he was unaware of Epstein’s crimes and that Epstein “had no involvement with any NDA’s, whether they exist or not”.
Rather than attend the September hearing, Mr Black filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Washington challenging the subpoenas. He argued they had “no legitimate connection” to the committee’s legislative purpose and said disclosing the agreements would breach the privacy of women with “no known or public connection to Epstein”.
Mr Comer said Mr Black “has chosen to hide behind litigation”. Robert Garcia, the committee’s senior Democrat, said he “strongly” supported the contempt move.
In letters before the vote, Mr Black’s lawyers asked the committee to delay proceedings until the court had ruled on the lawsuit and the Office of Congressional Conduct had considered a complaint they planned to make about Mr Comer’s conduct during the deposition.
His lawyers, Susan Estrich and Aaron Cutler, described the action as “retaliation — plain and simple”. They said: “We have the constitutional right to sue Chairman Comer and the Committee because the subpoenas issued were illegitimate, illegal and a textbook abuse of power designed to bully and destroy legal protections of private citizens.”
They added: “This entire charade is about politics and ambition.”
