—Kerry Hill, B1Daily

The congressional investigation into Jeffrey Epstein may be producing something larger than another stack of subpoenas: a federal attempt to prevent nondisclosure agreements from silencing sexual-abuse survivors.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican leading the House Epstein investigation, has introduced the Survivor’s Voice Protection Act, legislation designed to make NDAs unenforceable when they prohibit people from disclosing sexual abuse. The proposal would apply retroactively to existing agreements as well as future ones.

The legislation grew directly out of what congressional investigators say they encountered while examining Jeffrey Epstein’s network.

Comer said the investigation showed that legal restrictions could discourage survivors from coming forward. Under his proposal, an NDA could not prevent someone from reporting sexual abuse to law enforcement or discussing it with Congress.

That issue became especially prominent during Congress’s escalating battle with billionaire investor Leon Black. The Oversight Committee has demanded NDAs from Black as part of its investigation and voted unanimously to recommend holding him in contempt after the committee said he failed to comply fully with its subpoenas. Black denies wrongdoing connected to Epstein and is challenging the subpoenas in federal court.

The proposed law would go beyond the Epstein investigation. If enacted as written, its protections would apply broadly to agreements attempting to prevent disclosure of sexual abuse.

The bill would also establish a federal definition of grooming, covering conduct intended to establish an emotional connection with a minor through manipulation, trust-building or influence in order to facilitate sexual conduct.

That makes the proposal potentially one of the more consequential developments to emerge from Congress’s Epstein investigation.

NDAs have legitimate purposes in business, employment and settlements. But an agreement protecting confidential business information is fundamentally different from one that prevents someone from disclosing sexual abuse.

Congress is now considering drawing that line directly into federal law.

The Epstein investigation began as an attempt to understand how a wealthy sex offender remained surrounded by powerful institutions and individuals despite his criminal history. It may ultimately leave behind a broader legal legacy: a piece of paper would no longer be enough to contractually silence someone from speaking about sexual abuse.

—Kerry Hill, B1Daily