Leon Black has denied he ever met or raped ‘Jane Doe’. In an exclusive statement, Doe tells the Guardian: ‘I am still here. And I am not done’
Lawyers for Leon Black, the billionaire investor who has been accused in a civil lawsuit of raping a teenage girl insideJeffrey Epstein’s New York townhouse in 2002, reached out to a powerful federal judge in 2024 to raise doubts about the alleged victim’s claims, a Guardian investigation has found.
The move set off a months-long court proceeding, which was conducted outside public view and led the US district judge Jed Rakoff to reverse a $2.5m award that had been granted to the alleged victim in a separate Epstein-related class action lawsuit, according to court records. She was later given a much smaller settlement in the class action case.
Jane Doe, as she is known in court filings, has claimed she wastrafficked by Epsteinand raped by Black when she was a teenager more than two decades ago.
The Guardian’s investigation is revealing new details about the private communications in Black’s legal campaign, which undermined Doe in her civil lawsuit against the Wall Street billionaire.
In a recent court order, Doe faced a significant setback when Jessica Clarke – the federal judge presiding over her civil lawsuit against Black –sanctioned Doe and her former lawyer for “serious, sanctionable misconduct in this case”. Judge Clarke said Doe’s former lawyerhad “repeatedly lied to the court and opposing counsel”, and directed her client to destroy a social media account. Doe was sanctioned for having “falsified” some sonogram images that appeared in personal journals, which were submitted to the court as evidence of her abuse by Epstein.
However, it was not a complete victory for Black, as the judge also ruled that the high-stakes lawsuit could proceed.
Black, the74-year-old former Apollo Global Management CEO, paidEpstein $170m, according to aninvestigation by the Senate finance committee, which he says was for tax and estate planning. Black has denied allegations that he raped or ever met Doe, who is now 40 years old. He has never been charged with any crimes in connection to Epstein or otherwise.
The Epstein scandal has prompted questions about why the accused sex trafficker’s elite circle of friends and associates has not faced greater scrutiny. That may change. Black is due to testify before the House oversight committee on 26 June, according to a person familiar with the matter, as part of the committee’s investigation into, among other things,Epstein’s sex-trafficking rings. He is also facing questions from theDemocratic senator Ron Wyden,who claimed in a recent letter to Blackthat the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice “remove any lingering doubt” as to whether Black was “connected to women in Epstein’s network” and alleged that “powerful associates in the US and abroad were surveilling and paying off women on [Black’s] behalf”.
Black’s attorney, Susan Estrich, called Wyden’s assertions “outrageous and false” in an emailed statement, and characterized the senator’s comments as a “politically motivated attack”.
The Guardian’s investigation, based on access to extensive court records, many of which are still under seal but are due to be unsealed soon, reveals how Black and his legal team’s private pleas to a federal judge led to a legal battle involving extensive written submissions and multiple hearings in a case in which he was not a party.
It included an extraordinary personal appeal from Black to Judge Rakoff, a well-known and respected jurist based in the southern district ofNew York. The written message, which was obtained by the Guardian, portrayed Black as a victim, invoking the death of Black’s father, disputing Doe’s credibility and citing the damage the allegations have done to Black’s reputation. It was submitted by the billionaire’s lawyers days before Rakoff denied the $2.5m award that Doe was due to receive in the Epstein-related class action lawsuit.
In another twist, Black’s legal effortwas bolstered by a high-profile lawyer who is publicly heralded as an advocate for Epstein’s victims.
All these communications occurred outside public view.
In an exclusive statement to the Guardian in which Doe described her feelings about what has transpired, she said: “We are often taught that the justice system is there to protect victims and correct wrongs. My experience has shown me that it is far more complicated than that. Justice is not always blind. It is often shaped by power, access, and who is able to withstand the process. I am still here. And I am not done.”
