Black in defamation lawsuit alleges California lawmaker made false statements about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein

Billionaire Leon Black has filed a defamation lawsuit against the California congressman Robert Garcia, accusing the lawmaker, who is the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, of making false statements about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein and the disgraced financiers’s sex-trafficking crimes.

The filing, filed in federal court in New York on Wednesday, comes almost two months after the House voted to hold Black in contempt of Congress over his refusal to comply with subpoenas issued by the House oversight committee as part of the panel’s investigation into Epstein. As of 5 November, the Department of Justice has not filed contempt charges against Black. Garcia’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Accuracy of US polling came into sharp focus after Trump outperformed polls in 2016, 2020 and 2024

Political polling experts hailed a “great night” for the industry after surveys accurately foresaw much of the Democratic blue wave that swept across the US in midterm elections.

In only a handful of US Senate races, including Texas and New Hampshire, key polls failed to gauge the scale of the Democratic victory over Republicans on Tuesday.