Epstein Files Detail Gruesome Allegations Against Leon Black
Emails and apparent diary entries accuse the billionaire and MoMA trustee of biting and abusing alleged victims.
Editor’s Note: The following story contains mentions of sexual assault and harassment. To reach the National Sexual Assault Hotline, call 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or visit online.rainn.org.
The latest tranche of Epstein files released by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) last week includes detailed and gruesome descriptions of alleged abuse by private equity billionaire and Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) trustee Leon Black.
The trove of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein includes scanned pages of an apparent diary containing first-person accounts of alleged abuse as well as emails describing accusations against Black.
Certain details expressed in the spiral-bound notebook, including the year, location, and perpetrators of the alleged abuse, correspond to a 2023 lawsuit alleging that the billionaire raped a 16-year-old girl who has autism and a rare form of Down Syndrome in Epstein’s Manhattan residence in 2002. According to court filings, at the time, the girl’s developmental age was estimated to be 12 years old. The lawsuit is ongoing, and the woman, known as Jane Doe, recently fired her attorney.
On a page of the apparent journal, the diary’s author pasted a copy of Sylvia Plath’s 1962 poem “Stopped Dead” and added “Leon Black” in handwriting next to the title. The author underlined several lines from the poem: “birth, cry, fatso millionaire, it's violent, goddamn baby screaming, there's always a bloody baby, your seven chins, still as a ham.” Some of the entries appear to be written in a form of code. The letters are arranged so that reading downward, diagonally upward toward the right, down, and repeating the pattern produces a coherent message.
A document labeled “Confidential for Attorney’s Eyes Only” appears to translate and transcribe some of the coded entries, including one that includes allegations that Black bit the victim and made her bleed.
“Walk down Madison Avenue to 71st St,” the decoded entry begins, referencing Epstein’s Upper East Side address.
“Even though Ghislane said it was best to take me home because Mr. Black is so important for some reason over my health,” the author continues. “There is going to be hell to pay. I ruined their trip and I am dramatic when that fat fuck bit me! He threw me on the floor and blood all over Jeffreys carpet and I am the issue? Who the fuck bites someone? Sick! No one is that important and Leon can go fuck himself. I hate New York!”
While the identity of the journal’s author is redacted, advocates of Epstein’s victims, including a lawyer whose confidential client was named over 500 times in the recent document release, have criticized the DOJ for publishing sensitive information related to victims’ identities.
Wigdor LLP, the law firm formerly representing Jane Doe and another person who accused Black of abuse, declined to comment on any of the released documents. The firm did not answer questions about whether these documents could jeopardize the accusers.
The recent document dump includes not only apparent first-person accounts from a victim, but also emails sent from Wigdor partner Jeanne M. Christensen, who formerly represented Jane Doe and another Black accuser, former Russian model Guzel Ganieva, explicitly detailing accusations against the billionaire.
In a statement from Black’s attorney, Susan Estrich, sent to Hyperallergic through spokesperson Whit Clay, Estrich claimed that an independent investigation by the Dechert Law firm “concluded that Black paid Epstein for estate planning and tax advice and that he had no awareness of Epstein’s criminal activities.”
“Of the three civil lawsuits filed against Mr. Black, one has been dismissed, the other withdrawn and the other is currently facing a case terminating motion for sanctions. There is absolutely no truth to any of the allegations against Mr. Black,” Estrich said.
Estrich also said that Jane Doe was “a fraud” and that Black’s representatives were seeking sanctions against the accuser and Wigdor LLP for “false and fraudulent claims against Mr. Black.”
Estrich continued: “Her actual name doesn’t appear in the database of Epstein’s victims and her birth family says she makes up stories and she fabricates ‘evidence.’ Among her most absurd and false claims are that in less than three years she was trafficked to more than 50 men; birthed multiple children fathered by Epstein; and, suffered at least six forced abortions. None of this is true.”
Black was also accused of sexual abuse in two other lawsuits, which have since been dismissed or withdrawn. In 2021, Ganieva accused Black of defamation and sexual abuse after Black claimed that she had extorted money from him following her initial public allegations of sexual misconduct. A judge dismissed the civil defamation case, determining that a $9.5 million payment from Black under a nondisclosure agreement precluded her from pursuing her claims in court.
Another Black accuser, Cheri Pierson, permanently withdrew her 2022 lawsuit alleging Black had raped her in 2002 at Epstein’s Upper East Side. It is unclear why the case was withdrawn in 2024.
The apparent diary entries are not the only documents in the recent Epstein files that reference abuse allegations against Black. A May 2023 email between two redacted contacts containing notes from a phone call with Christensen of Wigdor LLP, Jane Doe’s former attorney, outlines multiple apparent allegations. It is unclear whether the claims pertain to Jane Doe or a separate victim or victims.
“Black bites parts of her vagina, violence was arousing for him, very painful for her,” one bullet point reads.
Another bullet detailed the alleged rape of a 16-year-old: "Epstein and Black used to talk about victim and described her as being 10; they knew about her [redacted].”
“Minor victim, at Epstein's townhouse and was told to give Leon Black a massage, violently raped by black,” the allegation notes continue.
The notes include the allegation that “Black used adult sex toys in victim's rectum and vagina” and that “Black and others at Epstein's house would not take her to the doctor and instead flew her out of NY the next day.”
In addition to the apparent journal, emails, and phone call notes, the Epstein files include a photograph of a cell phone screen showing a message dated October 16, 2018. “Leon. You sexually harassed me, sex trafficked me, raped me, and eventually blacklisted me,” the message reads.
“I don’t know for how much longer it will take me, on my own, to process the pain your [sic] caused me and my family. The least thing you can do is give me that document that I was forced to sign under duress and wasn’t able to read before signing. Unfortunately I am still tied to you,” the message continues.
Years later, in an email chain dated August 2021, communications between Christensen and a redacted recipient detail troublesome allegations against Black, including his alleged biting of the accusers’ genitals. In one such email, containing notes from a conversation with Christensen, the redacted author documents abuse claims from a woman who said Black sexually assaulted her when she was in her thirties.
The woman claimed that Black sexually assaulted her and bit her during a “massage” at Epstein’s home, according to the document. “At some point, he gave her an envelope with 5K in cash and says I hope this helps,” the notes read.
Christensen, who formerly represented both Jane Doe and Ganieva, said in the August 2021 email that two Black accusers described an eerily similar “biting ritual,” despite the “specific sex acts” not being public knowledge in either case.
“In short, the details she told me about what he did to her — are almost a perfect match about what my client told me —he violently bit down on her vulva, labia and clitoris,” Christensen wrote in the email, sent to a recipient whose name is redacted.
“...It is too abnormal to make up,” Christensen said. “She does not know my client — this person is and says it happened in 2001— at Epstein's townhouse.”
Hyperallergic sent the aforementioned files to Black’s spokesperson, Clay, for comment. Clay referred Hyperallergic to the previously quoted statement from Black’s attorney denying all allegations.
Artists and activists have long called for MoMA to remove Black from its board of trustees over his ties to Epstein, who received $158 million in payments from Black.
In March 2021, after Hyperallergic published an open letter signed by over 150 artists and cultural workers, MoMA announced that Black would not seek re-election as board chair. However, Black remains a trustee on the museum’s board. Black, whose net worth reached $13.6 billion this year, has influenced the museum’s financial and planning decisions since he joined the board in 2014.
MoMA has not publicly acknowledged the allegations against Black. The museum did not immediately respond to Hyperallergic’s comment for this article.
The latest batch of Epstein files also revealed that artist Jeff Koons attended a dinner party at the disgraced financier’s house years after his conviction, and led to the resignation of the School of Visual Arts’s former MFA Art Practice chair David A. Ross over his exchanges with and apparent support of Epstein.
