Susan Estrich is an American lawyer, legal scholar and political commentator, and a partner at Estrich Goldin. She has taught at the University of Southern California and Harvard Law School and was the first woman to lead the Harvard Law Review. She managed Michael Dukakis' 1988 presidential campaign and has written books on criminal law, politics and gender discrimination.
We have documented 2 statements by Susan Estrich, in 1 case. Each statement below gives the quotation, its original source and a link to the full case.
Case updates
Will prosecutors act on the Leon Black contempt referral?
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Role at the time: Attorney for Leon Black (Estrich Goldin LLP), in a statement issued jointly with Aaron Cutler of Hogan Lovells Cadwalader
Condemned
Response to this claim
In a federal complaint, Leon Black alleged that the House Oversight Committee's two subpoenas are invalid to the extent they exceed its delegated authority by seeking private information that has no legitimate connection to its legislative purpose.
“an outrageous action that ignores the facts and the truth about Mr. Black
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The House of Representatives has rushed through every stage of this inquiry.
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The full House is holding him in contempt without any regard to the active litigation challenging the lawfulness of the Committee’s actions and the ethics complaint against Chairman Comer
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politically motivated and completely retaliatory by a Chairman who is focused solely on himself and his own political ambitions without any regard for the truth and the law.
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To think, he is being held in contempt over invalid subpoenas is ridiculous.”
Open source (opens in a new tab)House votes to hold Leon Black in contempt of Congress over Epstein subpoenas defiance · CNBCParagraphs quoting Black's attorneys and the Justice Department spokesperson
Why we used this label
Relative to the decision to hold Black in contempt, the attorneys reject it as retaliatory and based on invalid subpoenas, and say the House ignored pending litigation and an ethics complaint. That is a condemnation of the action itself.
Role at the time: Attorney for Leon Black (Estrich Goldin LLP), in a statement issued jointly with Aaron Cutler of Hogan Lovells Cadwalader
Condemned
Response to this claim
In a federal complaint, Leon Black alleged that the House Oversight Committee's two subpoenas are invalid to the extent they exceed its delegated authority by seeking private information that has no legitimate connection to its legislative purpose.
“This Committee mark-up and contempt resolution is a complete abomination. The Committee under the leadership of Chairman James Comer and Ranking Member Robert Garcia has lost sight of its legislative purpose and is abusing its power.
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This is retaliation - plain and simple. We have the constitutional right to sue Chairman Comer and the Committee because the subpoenas issued were illegitimate, illegal, and a textbook abuse of power designed to bully and destroy legal protections of private citizens.
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He provided to the Committee the only NDA that was within the scope of the Committee's authority.
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This entire charade is about politics and ambition.
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there were more than enough reasons to postpone this mark-up and contempt resolution.”
Read the official statement (opens in a new tab)Statement from Leon Black’s Attorneys on Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Mark-up and Contempt ResolutionBusiness Wire release dated Sept. 15, 2026, as republished by Yahoo Finance
Why we used this label
Relative to the decision to hold Black in contempt, the attorneys denounce the contempt resolution and the committee's process and say the subpoenas were illegitimate. That rejects the action itself, which is stronger than disputing how it is described.
The House agreed on September 16 to hold Leon Black in contempt over two Oversight Committee subpoenas in the Epstein inquiry. Comer and Garcia say he defied them; Black's lawyers call the action retaliation and dispute the subpoenas' validity.
