Leon Black walked out of Epstein interview after refusing to answer NDA questions

Private equity billionaire Leon Black walked out of his written interview with the House Oversight Committee regarding his decades-long relationship. jeffrey epstein after he refused to answer questions about alleged confidentiality agreements involving the disgraced sex offender, according to a transcript of the June 26 interview released by the committee on Friday.

Black said he would be willing to talk about the three women involved in the cases filed against him. rejected many times Answering questions about how many confidentiality agreements he was involved in based on advice from his lawyers.

“I’m not here to talk about NDAs,” Black said, later adding. “I’m not here to talk about who has a confidentiality agreement.”

Comer subpoenas Leon Black after he refused to answer some of Epstein’s panel questions

After his refusal, Black was served with two subpoenas; one of them forced him to participate in the deposition, the other forced him to hand over confidentiality agreements. A spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee said Black’s lawyer confirmed that Black will appear at the hearing on September 3 and will hand over confidentiality agreements next week.

Black, who maintained a social relationship with Epstein since the mid-1990s and eventually paid him more than $170 million for “tax and estate planning advice,” according to the Senate Finance Committee, appeared before the oversight panel. ongoing investigation Concerning the government’s investigation of a convicted sex offender.

Black acknowledged discussing at least one non-disclosure agreement with Epstein but denied seeking Epstein’s advice on the matter. According to Black, he agreed to pay a woman who allegedly “blackmailed and extorted” him, a woman with whom he had a six-year relationship and eventually agreed to pay more than $21 million over 15 years. Because Epstein helped manage his finances, Black said he kept Epstein informed of the deal and the payments.

“I don’t know if he had any experience with NDAs. He was not my NDA advisor,” Black said of Epstein, according to the transcript.

Black was served with two subpoenas after he refused to answer broader questions about other alleged confidentiality agreements. His lawyers argued that Black was not at liberty to discuss confidential agreements to which he was a party and called the subpoenas a stunt.

Black’s attorney, Aaron Cutler, said, “Mr. Black came here voluntarily to assist the committee. This was nothing more than a planned political demonstration.” “Mr. Epstein had nothing to do with any confidentiality agreement, whether it existed or not.”

Before the interview was cut short, Black faced questions about her decades-long relationship with Epstein, whom she first began seeing socially before hiring him to manage some of his estate. While Black acknowledged seeing Epstein regularly (about once a month), he claimed they were not close friends.

“Friendship is an amorphous term. It’s someone who knows intimately what’s going on in my family’s tax and estate planning departments. It’s also, as I mentioned before, something where I’ll go out there and meet her friends. I know there are emails where she claims we’re best friends. We were never best friends,” Black said, according to the transcript.

Lawmakers backed down after Black tried to distance herself from Epstein, including by asking about a message Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime partner, had written for a book he was preparing for her. Epstein’s 50th birthday. According to the Wall Street Journal, Black wrote a two-line poem: “Blonde, Redhead or Brunette, geographically dispersed…with this fishing net Jeff is now ‘The Old Man and the Sea'” – and signed off with “Love and kisses, Leon.”

When asked to explain the note, Black said that Epstein had mentioned that he “seemed to know women all over the world” but denied knowing that any of the women were underage.

DOJ refuses to hand over additional Epstein files, says redactions are appropriate

“He enjoyed the company of good-looking women and was single,” Black said, adding that the way Epstein surrounded himself “mostly with good-looking women” was “a little bit like a James Bond movie.”

The interview was cut short after the topic moved to confidentiality agreements, and Black was not asked about the more than $158 he paid to Epstein for “tax and estate planning advice.” In his opening statement, Black claimed he paid Epstein so much money because he was solving a “massive real estate problem that could destroy tremendous value.” He denied that the money was related to any illegal activity.

“I never paid Epstein for access to women. I was never blackmailed by Epstein. I was not involved in, and had no knowledge of, Epstein’s disgusting behavior,” Black said, according to the transcript.