House Revokes Billionaires’ Right to Ignore Subpoenas
The House revoked a long-standing constitutional exemption for extremely wealthy men Wednesday, unanimously holding billionaire Leon Black in contempt of Congress after he declined to attend a Sept. 3 deposition concerning his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Black also failed to produce all nondisclosure agreements requested by the House Oversight Committee, following the traditional private-equity model of promoting transparency by ensuring that relevant documents remain invisible. Chairman James Comer and ranking Democrat Robert Garcia supported the contempt referral, recklessly establishing that a subpoena may apply even when its recipient owns more bathrooms than the average public school.
Black, the founder and former chief executive of Apollo Global Management, sued the committee rather than comply, demonstrating his respect for congressional oversight by asking another branch of government to switch it off. President Donald Trump praised the approach as a landmark in voluntary cooperation. “Leon is cooperating tremendously, perhaps more than anyone has ever cooperated, because refusing to appear saves Congress from hearing answers it may not like,” Trump said. “Sometimes the most honest testimony is no testimony, especially when the questions are very specific and come with documents.” Legal scholars confirmed that cooperation now includes attendance, nonattendance, document production and suing investigators, depending on the cooperating party’s net worth.
The House referred the matter to the Justice Department for possible prosecution, threatening the nation’s delicate separation of powers among Congress, the executive branch and private-equity billionaires accustomed to selecting which legal commands deserve acknowledgment. Black’s attorneys called the contempt action a “complete abomination,” correctly observing that accountability becomes unconstitutional whenever it causes scheduling difficulties. Lawmakers then departed secure in the knowledge that they had defended the rule of law, provided the rule survives several years of litigation, multiple appeals and the discovery that rich defendants possess calendars. The Constitution therefore continues to guarantee billionaires due process, meaning no process until every other process has been exhausted.
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