Jes Staley spent more than thirty years at JPMorgan Chase.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said Thursday they believe they aren't getting truthful answers from Jes Staley,Jeffrey Epstein'sformer private JPMorgan Chase investment banker, during Staley's appearance before the panel.
Staley, whose career as a finance executive came crashing down after Epstein's death in 2019, is on Capitol Hill Thursday for a voluntary transcribed appearance before the Oversight Committee as part of the panel's wide-ranging probe into the federal government's investigations of Epstein.
"The reality is he's claiming first that he had no real friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. I mean that is just ridiculous," ranking Democratic committee member Rep. Robert Garcia told reporters during a break in Thursday's proceedings. "There is documented evidence, including in the Epstein files and numerous emails of a decades-long friendship."
"What we are seeing today is a man who is brazenly lying, who's being so cavalier in terms of saying, 'No, I don't know, I don't recall,' acting like he barely knew Jeffrey Epstein, denying you know events that happened that are very clearly documented in email correspondence between the two," Arizona Rep. Yassamin Ansari said.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico said Staley confirmed he traveled to Florida in 2008 to see Epstein in what Stansbury said Staley called a "friendly visit."
"Over and over again, he could not recall, but somehow he could magically recall the details of his friendly visit to Jeffrey Epstein," Stansbury said.
"There are clear patterns here that Mr. Staley is conveniently not recalling because he is not under oath, because he is not compelled to answer," Washington Rep. Emily Randall said.
"We know that he was very close friends with Mr. Epstein," Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told reporters on his way into the hearing room for the closed-door proceedings. "We know that while Mr. Staley was at JPMorgan there was internal discussions, according to some of the documents that we received, that JPMorgan was concerned about Epstein as a client, that he was a high-risk client, but Jes Staley was the one person who continued to defend Epstein with that firm."
Comer said the panel also has "a lot of questions" about emails and messages between Mr. Staley and some of Epstein's survivors.
"It appears that within JPMorgan there were flags, red flags about Epstein," Comer said.
Staley, 69, spent more than thirty years at JPMorgan Chase, including in senior roles in the private banking and investment divisions, where he managed relationships with ultra-wealthy clients, including Epstein.
After Staley left JPMorgan Chase, he became the CEO of the British multinational bank Barclays in 2015.
Staley's interview, like others that have occurred in recent months, is being transcribed but not recorded.
Following Epstein'sarrest and deathin 2019, Staley came under scrutiny in a lawsuit brought by Epstein's victims, who contended in court filings that JPMorgan Chase and Staley had allegedly ignored red flags that helped enable Epstein to traffic women and girls. JPMorgan Chase settled the case in 2023 for $290 million, without any admission of wrongdoing.
