ICYMI: Rep. Min on CNN: Leon Black Claiming He Knew Nothing About Epstein’s Sex Trafficking Operation “Is Just Not Credible”

Washington, D.C. - On CNN today, Representative Dave Min (CA-47), a member of the House Oversight Committee, discussed Leon Black's expected voluntary interview before the Committee and said Black's anticipated denial of knowledge about Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking operation is "just not credible."

Rep. Min pointed to Black's extensive ties to Jeffrey Epstein, including his repeated appearances in the Epstein files, his $170 million in payments to Epstein, allegations raised in civil lawsuits, and his settlement with the U.S. Virgin Islands. Rep. Min also criticized Chair Comer for allowing key witnesses to appear through voluntary interviews instead of subpoenas and sworn depositions, warning that this structure has allowed figures like Pam Bondi to refuse to answer critical questions and limit Congress' ability to get the answers that survivors and the American people deserve.

WATCH HERE

TRANSCRIPT:

On Expected Cooperation from Leon Black:

"As MJ Lee just described in Leon Black's opening statement, he denies any knowledge of anything happening. Basically, like everybody else that we've talked to so far, he's going to basically lie to us and claim he saw no evil, hear, no evil knew nothing about what was happening. And that's just really not credible. We know from the documents that Leon Black's name is mentioned over 8000 times in the Epstein files that we have gotten so far. The phrase 'please call Leon Black' is mentioned more than 300 times.

He paid, as you have noted, 170 million dollars to Jeffrey Epstein. Jeffrey Epstein was giving tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars to women and girls that Leon Black was involved with. He was accused by three different women of raping them on Epstein properties. He traveled to all the Epstein estates, so this is just crazy for him to claim that he had no knowledge. So I fully expect that he's going to lie, lie, lie, and I will just say, even though he's not going to be under oath today, it is a federal crime to lie before Congress. So we're going to have to see what happens, but I'm not expecting a lot of honest information today."

On Potential Foreign Government Connections:

"I do want to ask him, on the record, what connections his financial assets might have had with foreign governments. One of the things that's been raised a lot is that Jeffrey Epstein may have been backed by foreign governments. No one would know better than Leon Black, who basically was funding this operation."

On Epstein's Inner Circle:

"I was sitting through Les Wexner, through his accountant, his lawyer, and all of them claimed no knowledge, and that's just to me, not credible. We know that everybody who knew anything about Jeffrey Epstein knew that he was running a sex trafficking operation. And for the people closest in his orbit, particularly Leon Black, who was accused by multiple women of raping them. I will just say one of the reasons some of those suits were dropped is that he had them sign non-disclosure agreements. Who does that?

He settled with the US Virgin Islands for 62 million. They forever excluded him from any criminal or civil charges on anything related to Jeffrey Epstein in return for 62 million, and he explicitly acknowledged in that settlement that his money, the 170 million that he'd given to Jeffrey Epstein, was used to fund Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking operation. That's in the actual settlement language. So the idea that he knew nothing about what was happening is again not credible."

On the Limits of Voluntary Interviews:

"Here's the thing that I think is frustrating to a lot of us who are seeking justice. These are all structured as voluntary interviews. They are not sworn depositions, they're not issued as subpoenas, and that means that when Pam Bondi, the former Attorney General came before our committee, she refused to answer questions that had anything to do with Donald Trump. She refused to answer any questions that happened before or after her time as Attorney General, even though there is a lot of pertinent information there. She set those parameters, because she said "this is a voluntary interview, I am not here under subpoena." It limits our ability to get to the truth, it limits our ability to ask questions and get the answers that the survivors and the American people deserve.

This is honestly outrageous, and Todd Blanche's name is all over there. Pam Bondi and others have testified to us that Todd Blanche was exclusively responsible for the Epstein investigation. We know that he went down there and talked with Ghislaine Maxwell. We don't know everything that was said, because not all of it was transcribed, but shortly thereafter Ghislaine Maxwell was transferred to that prison. It sure looks like Todd Blanche engineered that, but we want to get those answers on the record.

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