Is Leon Black truly in trouble?
The cabal makes moves
If Jeffrey Epstein has NBA ties, it’s primarily through Apollo Global and its founder Leon Black. We’ve been banging this drum at TrueHoop since 2019, so it was a big deal that Leon Black was called to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Friday.
Black barely testified. About an hour after it started, Black had his expensive little sunglasses back on, and the officials were in the hallway talking to the reporters.
Politicians from both parties were gleeful that the House Oversight Committee finally did something tough. When Leon Black evaded their questions about non-disclosure agreements Black has with women, the committee chair James Comer dropped the hammer, issuing Black subpoenas to return, under oath, next month. He has also been commanded to turn over any non-disclosure agreements he has with women.
If you’re a fan of the truth, this is a wonderful piece of news.
Probably.
In the years I’ve been looking into this, so many different people who know a lot about Epstein and his world see Leon Black as untouchable.
When he was alive, Steve Hoffenberg described Jeffrey Epstein to me as part of a “large group” that committed the biggest crime in the history of the world. And when I asked Hoffenberg about accounts in the Caribbean, bursting with double digit billions, held by the founders of Apollo Global, Hoffenberg said those were the proceeds. His suggestion was that Leon Black, in effect, is the guy holding the bag that belongs to many of the world’s richest and most connected people.
Kirby Sommers has lived with deep knowledge of that cabal for decades, and has long described Black as “untouchable.” She describes, among other things, his lifelong ties to intelligence agencies.
The Epstein files include a 2023 email from attorney Jeanne Christensen, apparently to prosecutors in New York, saying:
Leon Black paid 62.5 million to USVI - and this does not include payments of money to individual women - it’s outrageous that criminal charges have not been brought against him.
I’ve heard one lawyer represents ten women that he sexually assaulted.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/investor-leon-black-settles-with-us-virgin-islands-over-epstein-probe-2023-07-21/
I hope that your office is going to take a hard look based on this new information.
Nothing happened!
Senator Ron Wyden has been pursuing insight into Leon Black and Jeffrey Epstein’s financial ties for years, and makes an incredible point: Epstein advised Black on tax strategies that eluded even the highest profile firms. Black enacted them, and says they reduced his tax bills by so much that it was worth paying Epstein a reported $170 million or so. And, according to Black’s advisors, those transactions have not been audited by the IRS.
Leon Black has the most incredible political connections. Jay Clayton is just one example: after a career representing many people with Epstein ties at what has historically been seen as a CIA-connected law firm, Clayton ran the SEC when the SEC didn’t meaningfully investigate Epstein’s cabal. He ran the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York when it amassed tons of evidence but failed to prosecute Epstein’s co-conspirators. And in between, he ran Leon Black’s company, Apollo Global, as chairman of the board.
Now Jay Clayton has been nominated as the next director of national intelligence.
The point being: by reputation, and in practice, Leon Black has a lot of game, connections, and history in staying out of trouble.
James Comer is not so far removed from being the Kentucky commissioner of agriculture. I think it’s fair to wonder if he has the chops, or will, to unravel the rat’s nest of sophisticated billionaires around Epstein. (Comer has himself been accused of bad behavior with a woman.)
In an article about how Comer won his appointment to lead this committee, Politico noted “In recent years, the top GOP spot on the Oversight panel has gone to some of the party’s fiercest attack dogs, since the committee is the party’s first line of defense against Democratic-led investigations.”
The suggestion is that this is someone appointed for the purpose of being loyal to Donald Trump. Comer sends out press releases saying things like “Our State of the Union is stronger than ever, thanks to President Trump’s unwavering commitment to fulfilling his promises to the American people.” A March 2023 New York Times article by Luke Broadwater and Jonathan Swan got my attention:
House Republicans have quietly halted a congressional investigation into whether Donald J. Trump profited improperly from the presidency, declining to enforce a court-supervised settlement agreement that demanded that Mazars USA, his former accounting firm, produce his financial records to Congress.
Representative James R. Comer, Republican of Kentucky and the chairman of the Oversight and Accountability Committee, made clear he had abandoned any investigation into the former president’s financial dealings — professing ignorance about the inquiry Democrats opened when they controlled the House — and was instead focusing on whether President Biden and members of his family were involved in an influence-peddling scheme.
“I honestly didn’t even know who or what Mazars was,” said Mr. Comer, who was the senior Republican on the oversight panel during the last Congress, while Democrats waged a lengthy legal fight over obtaining documents from the firm.
“What exactly are they looking for?” Mr. Comer added in a brief statement to The New York Times on Monday. “They’ve been ‘investigating’ Trump for six years. I know exactly what I’m investigating: money the Bidens received from China.”
Recently The New York Times published well-sourced reporting about key White House officials having a series of crisis meetings in the situation room to discuss the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. That’s the very topic of Comer’s committee’s active and ongoing hearings.
And yet just a couple of days ago, this report was published by Spectrum News showing Comer on camera sayig that he could see no reason to summon White House officials to testify before his committee.
I don’t think it’s outlandish to suggest that James Comer has a natural reflex to do whatever Donald Trump wants.
And that’s the guy who just subpoenaed Leon Black.
Donald Trump and Leon Black go way back.
That’s a recent photo of Donald Trump and Leon Black holding hands. They went to Moscow together in 1996, and Leon Black told the Senate Intelligence Committee that he couldn’t remember whether or not Black and Trump went to a strip club together. Trump appointed Leon Black’s son Ben Black to his administration.
My guess is that the non-disclosure agreements will open a tough line of questioning for Leon Black. Once they are public, what might begin is a sprawling conversation about Leon Black and women and Jeffrey Epstein and women. Every part of that could undercut his credibility. Any part of might inspire members of Congress to search through the unreleased parts of the Epstein files for more evidence.
There are already strong clues that Epstein played an active role in handling Leon’s various reputational crises.
And I’ve already seen some suggestions that there could be some messy overlaps between the love lives of the various powerful men involved.
In other words, James Comer, with these subpoenas, might have really opened Pandora’s Box.
Here’s what I’m wondering:
Did Comer drop a bomb on Leon Black without Trump’s knowledge and permission?
Did Comer drop a bomb on Leon Black with Trump’s knowledge and permission?
Was this move, in effect, fake tough, a show of enforcement—and somehow Leon Black will not actually get in trouble?
