Former Barclays Chief Executive Jes Staley failed to convince lawmakers during a closed-door congressional hearing that he didn’t have a friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, committee Democrats told reporters.
Staley met with the House Oversight Committee on Thursday as part of its investigation into late convicted sex offender Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
“Staley is not being truthful and is flat out lying,” said senior Democrat on the committee, California Rep. Robert Garcia, who also alleges Staley was not answering questions under oath.
“He is claiming that he has no friendship with Epstein, which is ridiculous,” he added.
Staley, who served as CEO of British banking giant Barclays from 2015, resigned in 2021 from the lender following a dispute over how he handled disclosing his ties to Epstein.
The former CEO appealed against his Financial Conduct Authority industry ban for misleading the British regulator about those ties in 2025, but lost.
The FCA cited over 1,000 emails between Epstein and Staley for its case, with examples of Staley describing Epstein as “family” and calling their friendship “profound.”
Staley maintained he did have a close professional relationship with Epstein but couldn’t recall sending those emails.
The ex-executive also said he was unaware of Epstein’s crimes.
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has written to Barclays Chair Nigel Higgins asking for urgent answers from the British bank over its “apparent failure to meaningfully investigate” Staley’s ties to Epstein.
In a statement to Reuters, a Barclays spokesperson said, “The UK regulator concluded that Barclays was misled by Staley. We conducted an investigation based on the information that was available to us at the time.”
“Since then, new information has emerged that was not available to Barclays that demonstrates Mr. Staley misled Barclays and many others as to the nature of the relationship with Epstein. That information relates to activities that predated his employment at Barclays,” the bank said.
Warren’s letter, sent jointly with Representatives Ro Khanna of California and Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, both Democrats, urged Barclays to answer questions about how the bank handled information on the links between Staley and Epstein.
Before joining Barclays, Staley was head of the private bank at JPMorgan Chase where Epstein was one of his clients.
The U.S. Virgin Islands sued JPMorgan for allegedly ignoring Epstein’s sex trafficking. JPMorgan denied liability and later settled the lawsuit without admitting wrongdoing. The bank in turn sued Staley, before reaching a confidential settlement with him.
Epstein, who died in a New York City prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, had extensive ties to many prominent people in politics, finance, academia and business, including U.S. President Donald Trump. His death was ruled a suicide.
The oversight committee has interviewed figures such as former President Bill Clinton, current Commerce Secretary and former Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, as well as Goldman Sachs senior counsel Kathy Ruemmler.
Staley is also facing a lawsuit in Los Angeles that claims he and Barclays defrauded shareholders about his relationship with Epstein. The defendants have sought dismissal of the claims.
Staley’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
