The House unanimously agreed to hold billionaire investor Leon Black in criminal contempt of Congress after he refused to appear for a deposition and turn over documents to a key panel investigating Jeffrey Epstein. The citation recommends the Justice Department bring federal charges against Mr. Black.

The House Oversight Committee issued subpoenas to Mr. Black in June, after he refused to answer questions about nondisclosure agreements he had signed with women, some of whom had been linked to Mr. Epstein. Mr. Black refused to comply and instead sued the committee, accusing it of exceeding its authority. The committee on Tuesday unanimously recommended holding Mr. Black in contempt.

Representative James R. Comer, Republican of Kentucky and the panel’s chairman, accused him of using the lawsuit as cover. Representative Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the committee, said Mr. Black had clearly violated two subpoenas. Mr. Black’s lawyers, Susan Estrich and Aaron Cutler, criticized the contempt vote as “politically motivated and completely retaliatory.”

Mr. Black paid Mr. Epstein $170 million from 2013 to 2017 for what he described as traditional tax and estate planning services. Mr. Black has repeatedly said he knew nothing about Mr. Epstein’s decades-long sexual abuse of teenage girls and young women.