Jun 29, 2026
https://thepunchup.substack.com/p/trump-allegedly-threatened-beauty
Went to the Greek Cafe in Bellevue last night and saw this on a trashcan on the sidewalk. I just thought it was great, grew up watching Bob Ross!
Article text:
^(June 26, 2026)
Who are the 25 men hiding behind Secret Epstein Victim Settlements?
Moneyman Leon Black refuses to cooperate, abruptly leaves Congressional hearing
The House Oversight Committee took the unusual step yesterday of issuing subpoenas mid-hearing to force an uncooperative witness — Jeffrey Epstein’s former client Leon Black — to answer questions about secret out-of-court legal settlements he may have made with young women.
Black, who has denied any wrongdoing and insists he didn’t know about Epstein’s crimes, abruptly left the hearing after the Committee’s chairman, Rep. James Comer, issued the subpoenas during the closed-door meeting on Friday.
Black’s quick exit has to make one wonder just how many young women he made settlements with, especially since he also paid Epstein over $170 million for what his lawyer called “tax and estate planning services” — and in 2023, he also paid $62.5 million to the U.S. Virgin Islands over his ties to Epstein, who owned an island where Epstein sexually abused an untold number of victims.
Black did not admit any wrongdoing as part of the USVI settlement, but it raises questions about why he would pay such a sum if he had nothing to hide.
The sad part is Black is not the only one who has used his wealth to shield himself from scrutiny over his association with the notorious sex trafficker.
Business Insider’s Jacob Shamsian reported this week that at least four men associated with Epstein were accused of sexual misconduct by 20 women between them.
And that number could be just the beginning when you count up all the lawyers representing all the men accused of bad deeds by Epstein’s survivors.
Brad Edwards, a South Florida lawyer who has represented some 200 of Epstein’s victims over the past decade, has publicly said that at least two dozen men have made civil settlements with women and girls, many of whom were Epstein victims.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm4NWoTpxs4
Epstein’s partner in crime, Ghislaine Maxwell, has used Edwards’ public statements about the settlements to try to garner support for her last-ditch effort to overturn her 2021 sex trafficking conviction. She claims the identities of these men, who could also have been co-conspirators of Epstein’s sex trafficking operation, should have been disclosed to her at trial.
On Friday, it became clear that at least one of those men was Black, the former CEO of Apollo Global Management, who testified before the House Oversight Committee.
Black left after he was served subpoenas to answer questions about non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) that he signed with victims, Comer told reporters after the hearing.
One subpoena ordered Black to provide the committee with any NDA’s he was involved with, including those connected to Epstein or Maxwell. The second one requires Black to return and testify under oath before the Committee on July 16.
“During today’s voluntary transcribed interview, Mr. Black stated he wouldn’t answer questions about NDAs,” Comer said in a statement. “Answers about the terms and substance of these NDAs are critical to our investigation. For this reason, today I issued subpoenas to Mr. Black for NDAs and to appear for a deposition in the near future.”
Black’s attorney, Susan Estrich, told reporters that the Committee failed to ask any questions about “legitimate payments” Black made to Epstein for “professional services on tax and estate matters.”
“I want to be clear, as Mr. Black said in his opening statement: He never abused a woman, he never was with an underage woman, he never engaged in sex trafficking, he never paid Epstein for access to women, he was never blackmailed by Epstein, and Mr. Black had no knowledge of any of Mr. Epstein’s heinous conduct.”
Interesting enough, Black actually praised Epstein’s financial acumen, telling the committee in his opening statement that the notorious sex predator had helped him clean up a financial mess with his estate.
“Epstein solved a massive estate problem for me, that none of the experts and lawyers I consulted had been able to solve,” he said in a statement to the committee.
But Committee members want to know what else he may have known about Epstein. The New York Times has reported that Black paid about $20 million to a dozen women, some of whom had affairs with Black, who is married.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/business/jeffrey-epstein-leon-black.html
Black denied he was involved in Epstein’s abuse, describing him as a Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde who hid his criminal activities behind the cloak of his extensive network of relationships with influential people.
“I knew Jekyll. I didn’t know Hyde,” said Black.
According to the Justice Department’s Epstein files, one woman told the FBI she’d been abused by Black, saying he became sexual with her during a massage Epstein had directed her to give to Black.
Separately, another woman told the FBI that Black raped her. She described going with Black to Epstein’s home in Florida, where she said she was told to have sex with Epstein.
Black has denied these claims, as well as the claims of three other women who have sued him in the past. One case was dismissed and a second case was dropped by the plaintiff. A third remains pending.
“I don’t understand why people — including members of this committee — would accept baseless speculation about me without regard to the facts and spin such ugly and vicious narratives that are demonstrably false,” Black told the Committee.
“Leon Black had a chance to do the right thing and help us bring justice to the survivors,” said Rep. Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the Committee. ”Instead, he ran out of the room when he was pressed for information about his non-disclosure agreements with women and his relationship with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein. He has now been subpoenaed and must provide real answers to the Committee. He will be held accountable if he doesn’t comply with our investigation.”
Black is also at the center of a years-long probe into Epstein’s finances, spearheaded by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon. The Trump administration has so far refused to release Epstein tax records held by the U.S. treasury department.
https://jkbjournalist.substack.com/p/why-is-gop-blocking-epstein-bank
Black has an association with President Donald Trump, and his son, Benjamin Black, was tapped last year by the Trump administration to head the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, an international investment arm of the U.S. Government. Black and Trump were photographed together during a 1996 business trip to Moscow that was investigated by the U.S. Senate as part of its probe into Trump’s ties to Russia. Black has testified that he didn’t recall any inappropriate conduct during the Russia trip.
Still, Black remains a key figure in the Epstein case. Wyden suspects that some of the money Black paid to Epstein may have been "hush money payments to women using Jeffrey Epstein as a middleman."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sen-ron-wyden-leon-black-paid-epstein-170-million-tax-planning/
Wyden said that Epstein "kept close tabs of women who Black had reached settlements/NDAs with and reached out to Russian government officials to help Black with these so-called problems."
The Epstein files released by the DOJ showed that Epstein had both men and women working for him. They recruited young women from across the world. He and his recruiters used several ruses to engage potential victims by offering them modeling or educational opportunities. Sometimes he offered to hire them as his “assistants.”
Those women who accepted soon regretted what they had gotten themselves into, and it was often almost impossible to walk away. Epstein and Maxwell threatened to destroy the women’s careers, and in many cases, victims believed he would harm them or their families.
Edwards, who pursued Epstein for years on behalf of survivors, has said that Epstein’s pattern was to abuse girls until they “aged out” — or become too old for him — and then he would introduce them to some of his friends.
“If he started abusing someone at 16, sometimes he would abuse them until they were 24, 25 and, as they got older, the abuse would actually get worse,” Edwards said in an interview on Russell Adler’s Interesting Lawyers Podcast in 2024.
“He would send them to certain friends. Now he did have ulterior motives — to bring information back that he could use as necessary. Individuals then couldn’t report him because now he information on them. He got a lot of business deals done that he otherwise probably wouldn’t have received but for accumulating dirt on those individuals,” Edwards said.
Edwards estimated that there were at least 25 men who made secret settlements with Epstein victims.
He described 10-15 of them as men “who knew Jeffrey Epstein was a bad guy’ and who also had “bad motives” themselves.
“There are people I personally think should have been exposed, but not at the expense of your client’s wishes,” he said, explaining that the women who agreed to NDAs did so because they wanted to move on with their lives.
Black’s refusal to cooperate with the committee is likely to raise questions about whether more of the witnesses called to testify should do so under oath. Thus far, the witnesses have testified voluntarily, and most have not been sworn in.
Friday’s hearing is likely to renew demands for testimony under oath by key figures in the Epstein case.
Source: https://open.substack.com/pub/jkbjournalist/p/who-are-the-25-men-hiding-behind
In 44-page ruling, Judge Emmet Sullivan grants Phang’s motion for preliminary injunction, which sought further release of Epstein files by Trump Admin
Katie Phang: “I have standing to be able to get Todd Blanche to comply with Judge Sullivan’s order, which is now telling him that on or before July 2nd, he either has to put up or shut up. He either has to bring forth unredacted files or show cause as to why he should not or cannot do so.”
Per plaintiffs attorney, Judge Sullivan’s order requires Trump Admin to disclose Epstein “co conspirator names, foreign language docs, and an explanation for millions of redactions. They have to start by July 2.”
Source: Full video on YouTube
“I’m sorry if one of your billionaire donors is going to get embarrassed because he went to rape island.”
This clip gets more and more relevant every single day.
Since this speech we’ve seen:
• The DOJ miss the legal deadline to fully release the files under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
• Releases have been incomplete and heavily redacted, shielding powerful names and clients while failing to consistently protect victims’ identities and images.
• Millions of pages remain withheld or disputed, with the government claiming compliance despite widespread criticism.
• Political retaliation against transparency advocates, including Massie losing his seat to a Trump-backed primary challenger.
• The transfer of Ghislaine Maxwell to a lower-security prison, raising serious questions about favoritism and pardons.
• Hearings and testimonies that have produced more talk than action, with no major new prosecutions.
• Survivor outrage over the process, with many feeling the releases were designed more for damage control than justice.
• Clear and obvious attempts at cover-ups (deleting files and getting caught doing so; purposely withholding documents pertaining to Trump)
I mean I could add 100 more things, as i’m sure all of you could too.. to put it simply, this is still a massive cover-up.
This is just a reminder that we need to keep pushing, no matter what Congress does or doesn’t do. Don’t stop until these rich pedophiles are perp walked to the jail.
Keep sharing your files and your findings. Keep reaching out and pressuring your reps. Keep sharing the survivors stories. Keep sharing news pieces, especially reports on known abusers. Keep digging.
Justice for the surviors is owed, this shouldn’t be a partisan issue.. keep up the good fight!
Just received this email from Cheekwood. Their socials have a link to sign a petition to fight this.
“An Open Letter to our Nashville Community from Cheekwood
June 23, 2026
For 66 years, Cheekwood Estate & Gardens has served as a sanctuary of art, education, and nature for generations of Tennesseans. Today, that legacy is facing an unprecedented and radical existential threat, and the future of Cheekwood is in jeopardy.
A group of neighbors, led by Jackson Moore, has filed a formal legal appeal with the Metro Board of Zoning Appeals in an effort to halt construction of a Metro-mandated on-site parking facility necessary to support operations. However, their most recent tactic does not merely oppose a parking project. They are explicitly demanding that the city issue a Stop Work Order to halt all operations and public use of Cheekwood’s property.
If successful, this action would effectively shutter Cheekwood as we know it. It would prohibit public access, halt all programming that Nashvillians have made family traditions, and end free educational field trips for thousands of Nashville school children.
Cheekwood will not be bullied into closing our gates to the public by a self-serving faction trying to wall off a historic Nashville landmark for themselves. We are fully compliant with the law, and we stand firmly with Metro Nashville in our mission to serve the entire community—which includes our active support for collaborative, city-led traffic solutions like a shared-use Highway 100 access drive.”
“We Need Your Help to SAVE CHEEKWOOD!
We cannot fight this unprecedented overreach alone. We need the voices of our members, donors, visitors, and friends to send a resounding message of support.
We are officially launching the SAVE CHEEKWOOD Campaign and we need your help. Please click the link below to learn more about the facts of this matter and sign our petition. Urge our city leaders to protect this landmark and let the Board of Zoning Appeals know that Cheekwood belongs to all of Nashville.”
So besides the story matching up perfectly, on the 2nd page it states:
"On 04/26/2016, Doe put together a complaint against Epstein and Trump on her own under the name she was given to use at the parties. [Redacted] stated that Doe's case was dismissed because doe incorrectly filed the complaint as a civil rights violation."
Here is a link to Katie Johnson's lawsuit dated April 26, 2016.
https://www.plainsite.org/dockets/download.html?id=235488091&z=3dc5fb29