September 18, 2026
Congress sends contempt charges for Epstein bankroller Leon Black to DOJ
By Camaron Stevenson
What Happened
The US House recessed early this week, but not before voting unanimously to refer criminal contempt charges against Jeffrey Epstein bankroller Leon Black to the Justice Department over his refusal to comply with congressional subpoenas.
The referral forces the DOJ to pry open a door into a criminal enterprise US Attorney General Todd Blanche has desperately tried to keep shut. Shortly after joining the agency, Blanche was tasked with leading the department’s investigation into Epstein, which he quickly closed. The decision was widely criticized, as the closure came under the pretense that, despite identifying more than 1,000 victims, the DOJ had not uncovered enough evidence to prosecute any alleged co-conspirators. Blanche spent the following 14 months insisting that the DOJ had moved on, and that the public should do the same.
The criminal referral for Black now forces the DOJ to either revisit Epstein’s criminal network or risk provoking a Congress that has unified behind little else. Public pressure to hold those connected to Epstein accountable and deliver justice for survivors of their abuse pushed congressional Republicans to defy President Donald Trump and join Democrats in passing the Epstein Files Transparency Act last year. That same pressure has fueled an ongoing investigation into the government’s handling of the Epstein case by the House Oversight Committee.
“No one is above the law,” said committee chair Rep. James Comer (R-KY). “We will continue to seek transparency for the American people and justice for survivors in our investigation of the federal government’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell criminal cases.”
The committee’s investigation has been met with outright opposition from the Trump administration and reluctant compliance from private citizens. In July 2025, the committee approved Rep. Summer Lee’s (D-PA) motion to subpoena the DOJ for the full, unredacted Epstein Files. To date, the department has not complied. Nearly a year later, when billionaire and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appeared before the committee to answer questions about his relationship with Epstein, he let it slip that the White House had coached him before his interview — a revelation many on the committee point to as the reason behind his contradictory answers.
Others who appeared before the committee also did so willingly, but offered similarly deceptive answers. Epstein attorney Darren Indyke gave investigators misleading answers about his compensation and involvement in money laundering; Epstein scheduler Lesley Groff claimed to know nothing about trafficking despite having coordinated travel for victims; and former Goldman Sachs executive Kathy Ruemmler told investigators she hadn’t helped with Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell’s legal troubles, despite emails that confirm otherwise.
Like the others, Black initially appeared before the committee voluntarily. But he cut his interview short after refusing to answer questions about non-disclosure agreements he had women sign, prompting Comer to issue a surprise subpoena for Black’s NDAs. Black left, and when the time came for him to deliver the documents and appear for a deposition, he instead sued the committee. The committee then unanimously voted to hold Black in contempt, a decision that was approved by the full House on Wednesday.
“We just voted on the House floor to hold Leon Black in contempt of Congress,” said Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA), who sits on the committee. “He’s the guy who funded Jeffrey Epstein to the tune of $180 million. He’s all over the Epstein Files, and even the survivors said that he’d show up, and he was particularly brutal with a few women. Whatever happened, he has a lot of information, a lot of documents that are central to our investigation.”
Black’s long, sordid relationship with Epstein is of particular interest to congressional investigators, who view his role as friend and financier as crucial to understanding how a failed high school teacher came to own two islands, develop close relationships with the world’s richest and most powerful people, amass a personal fortune of over $500 million, and operate an international trafficking and money laundering network seemingly undisturbed for nearly 30 years.
Epstein is believed to have negotiated NDAs between Black and the women he had sexual relationships with, and investigators believe those contracts could provide insight into how Epstein tried to keep his criminal network under wraps. Should Blanche decide to prosecute, Black would either have to comply with the subpoena and deliver the requested NDAs to Congress or face fines and prison time.
“They didn’t have non-disclosure agreements, and this guy does, which means he’s paid women for — whatever reason,” Comer told COURIER. “According to some of the survivors, Epstein negotiated some of these NDAs. He negotiated the terms. Now, Mr. Black said in the transcribed interview — which if he’s lying to Congress, that’s a felony — he said that Epstein didn’t have anything to do with the NDAs. I don’t know if that’s factual or not, and a lot of people in the committee want to know for sure whether that’s true.”