Billionaire Leon Black Sues Congressman Robert Garcia for $7.5m Over Epstein Remarks

Billionaire investor Leon Black has sued Representative Robert Garcia of California for defamation, accusing the senior House oversight committee Democrat of falsely tying him to Jeffrey Epstein and the disgraced financier's sex trafficking crimes.

The lawsuit, seeking $7.5m in damages, was filed on Wednesday in federal court in New York. It comes nearly two months after the House voted to hold Black in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with subpoenas from the oversight committee, which is investigating Epstein. As of 5 November, the Department of Justice had not brought contempt charges against him. Garcia's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Black's name surfaced repeatedly in the Epstein files, and the New York Times has reported that he paid Epstein a total of $170m between 2013 and 2017 for what Black described as tax and estate planning services. In late June he sat for a voluntary interview with the oversight committee, but the session ended abruptly after lawmakers from both parties said he would not answer questions about non-disclosure agreements. Black has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and said he knew nothing of Epstein's crimes.

The committee, led by Republican chairman James Comer, subsequently issued two subpoenas, one demanding that Black hand over all NDAs "to which he is a party" and another ordering him to return for a deposition. Black skipped his scheduled 3 September deposition and did not produce all the agreements the panel sought.

Instead, Black sued Comer and the committee, contending the subpoenas were "invalid" and went beyond the panel's authority. He also argued they would "expose women who value their privacy, who have no known or public connection to Epstein".

In the new filing, Black alleges that "shortly after" his June appearance, Garcia "went on national television and lied to the American people, claiming that 'Leon Black is at the center of Jeffrey Epstein's crimes.'"

The complaint further alleges that several weeks later Garcia returned to television and "lied again", asserting that Black "was one of the last people to actually interact" with Epstein before the financier was found dead in jail in 2019. According to the suit, Garcia also said he had "talked to survivors that have credibly named Leon Black as someone that was involved in direct abuse of women and was directly involved with Jeffrey Epstein's trafficking network". Black contends those claims are false, that Garcia "knew it", and that the remarks "caused real and significant ongoing harm to Mr. Black".

The constitution's speech or debate clause generally shields members of Congress from defamation suits, but the protection applies only to statements made as part of legislative activity and typically does not cover comments made to the media.

Responding in September to Black's earlier suit against the committee, Garcia claimed the billionaire "funded Epstein's abuse and trafficking of women", adding: "Multiple women have also accused Black of sexual assault. His connections to Epstein and his unwillingness to cooperate are unacceptable." A spokesperson for Black countered that he has "never abused a woman; he has never been with an underage woman; he has never been involved with sex trafficking; and, he never paid Epstein for women".

At a news conference on Wednesday, Garcia, who is poised to take over as chair of the House oversight committee following the midterm elections, said the panel would be "focused" on four issues come January, among them Epstein.