Leon Black Pleads the Fifth on NDAs at Epstein Hearing
Billionaire Leon Black refused to answer questions about NDAs at a House Epstein hearing, distancing himself from the disgraced financier.
Billionaire private equity mogul Leon Black refused Wednesday to answer congressional questions about non-disclosure agreements during a high-profile House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing focused on Jeffrey Epstein's network, according to Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer. Black's silence on the NDA questions drew immediate attention from lawmakers pressing for transparency about Epstein's associates.
In a prepared statement delivered to the committee, Black attempted to draw a sharp distinction between his knowledge of Epstein's public persona and the financier's alleged criminal conduct. "I knew Jekyll. I didn't know Hyde," Black said, invoking the classic literary metaphor to argue he was unaware of Epstein's darker activities despite their well-documented financial relationship.
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Black, the co-founder of Apollo Global Management, has previously acknowledged paying Epstein tens of millions of dollars for financial and tax advisory services — a relationship that ultimately cost Black his role atop the firm. The hearing represents one of Congress's most direct attempts to compel testimony from high-profile figures connected to Epstein, whose sex-trafficking operation implicated powerful men across finance, politics, and entertainment before his 2019 jailhouse death.
Lawmakers have argued that NDAs may have been used to silence victims or conceal the scope of Epstein's network, making Black's refusal to engage on that topic particularly significant. The committee's investigation is part of a broader effort to determine who enabled or benefited from Epstein's crimes and whether institutional failures allowed his conduct to continue unchecked for decades.
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