Susan Estrich on Government Transparency

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Public disputes concerning what governments and public bodies disclose about their own conduct, data and records, including the completeness, timing and accuracy of what they publish.

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Statement history

2 statements on this page. Dates: September 15, 2026 to September 16, 2026

2 matching statements. Dates: September 15, 2026 to September 16, 2026

2 published statements. Dates: September 15, 2026 to September 16, 2026

Susan Estrich
Role at the time: Attorney for Leon Black (Estrich Goldin LLP), in a statement issued jointly with Aaron Cutler of Hogan Lovells Cadwalader
September 16, 2026Condemned
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 ... The House of Representatives has rushed through every stage of this inquiry. ... 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 ... 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. ... To think, he is being held in contempt over invalid subpoenas is ridiculous.”

Susan Estrich

Role at the time: Attorney for Leon Black (Estrich Goldin LLP), in a statement issued jointly with Aaron Cutler of Hogan Lovells Cadwalader

September 15, 2026Condemned

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. ... 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. ... He provided to the Committee the only NDA that was within the scope of the Committee's authority. ... This entire charade is about politics and ambition. ... there were more than enough reasons to postpone this mark-up and contempt resolution.”

Read the official statementStatement 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

Paid press release from Black's attorneys, distributed through Business Wire, responding to the committee's markup and contempt resolution. It says the attorneys submitted letters to the committee and filed a confidential complaint with the Office of Congressional Conduct.

Archived copy

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.

Read statement Was the House justified in holding Leon Black in contempt of Congress over the Epstein inquiry?