FBI Director Kash Patel testified in a Senate hearing on Tuesday that investigators have uncovered “no credible information” that the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein trafficked underage girls to anyone besides himself, a response unlikely to satisfy many in the MAGA movement, where speculation about Epstein’s connections to powerful figures has become a constant rallying cry.
“There is no credible information—none,” Patel said under questioning from Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican. “If there were, I would bring the case yesterday that he trafficked to other individuals.”
The exchange laid bare the challenge Patel faces after Republicans and others have spent years turning Epstein into a symbol of elite corruption. Kennedy warned Patel that Americans “want to know who, if anyone else, he trafficked these young women to” and said the FBI director would have to do more to satisfy their “understandable curiosity.”
Patel replied that the FBI would release “everything we are legally permitted to do so,” but emphasized that earlier plea deals struck by prosecutors in Florida had left the FBI with only “limited search warrants” from 2006 and 2007. “I am not saying that others were not trafficked and others were not involved,” Patel said. “What I am telling you is that based on the information we have, and we have continuously publicly asked for the public to come forward with more information, if there is, we’ll look at it.”
The highly-anticipated Senate Judiciary Committee hearing was perhaps Patel’s most visible opportunity yet to defend the FBI’s handling of the Epstein case amid mounting criticism over the lack of information it has shared. It was also an opportunity for Patel to demonstrate that he is the right person to lead the FBI amid growing concerns of internal turmoil at the bureau, sparked in part by the recent firings of experienced agents, and criticism of Patel’s handling of the ongoing investigation into conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Patel used his testimony to cast himself as a director committed to fighting violent crime and disrupting the flow of fentanyl, but he clashed repeatedly with Democrats as he sought to push back against accusations that he has politicized the bureau and wielded it against critics of President Donald Trump.
“I’m not going to mince words: you lied to us,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, told Patel, accusing him of betraying the assurances he gave during his January confirmation hearing that he would not purge the bureau’s ranks for political reasons. Three of the five senior officials who were fired last month filed a lawsuit that described the dismissals as “likely illegal.” One of those fired was Brian Driscoll, a former acting director who oversaw parts of the Jan. 6 investigation.
“These allegations are a searing indictment of your tenure as FBI director,” Blumenthal added.
Patel responded: “Anyone that’s been terminated failed to meet the needs of the FBI and uphold their constitutional duties,” he said, declining to discuss the specifics of the firings because of pending litigation. He insisted that morale inside the bureau “has never been higher.”
The hearing unfolded against the backdrop of Kirk’s assassination last week at a Utah college campus. The FBI arrested a 22-year-old suspect within 33 hours, he told Senators, a feat he described as a model of “historic speed.” But Patel did not address concerns that he had sowed confusion on the night of the killing by incorrectly posting that a suspect was already in custody, only to reverse himself later. He also did not address concerns over the August firing of the former head of the FBI’s Salt Lake City field office, whose jurisdiction covered the university where the shooting took place.
Patel, however, confirmed that the FBI is interviewing more than 20 people who participated in an online Discord chat with Tyler Robinson, the man accused of killing Kirk.
Several Republicans used their speaking time to blame the left for the uptick in political violence, a claim that President Trump has echoed in recent days. The U.S. Capitol Police has said it is on track to investigate 14,000 threat cases involving lawmakers this year, up from about 9,000 in 2024. “There can be no unity between good and evil. Somebody has to win this thing,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Missouri Republican. “Don’t tell me it’s both sides.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, recounted the June murder of Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband. She also asked Patel whether age data on shooters might point to solutions, and whether an assault weapons ban could reduce killings. Patel declined to endorse legislation, but said, “Whatever creativity we can use to eliminate even just one shooting, one horrific death, I am in favor of engaging with Congress fully to do.”
Other Democrats used the hearing to accuse Patel of enabling the Trump Administration’s drive for retribution. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, pointed to a 2023 book Patel authored, Government Gangsters, that included dozens of names of former officials he had described as corrupt. Whitehouse estimated that about 20 of those named had already faced adverse actions during Trump’s second term.
“That is an entirely inaccurate presupposition,” Patel replied. “I do not have an enemies list.”
The exchanges grew particularly sharp when Sen. Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, accused Patel of inflicting “generational destruction” on the bureau. “As much as you supplicate yourself to the will of Donald Trump, and not the Constitution, the United States of America, Donald Trump has shown us in his first term, and in this term, he is not loyal to people like you,” Booker said.
“That rant of false information does not bring this country together,” Patel responded as the two got into a shouting match.
On Wednesday, Patel is set to appear before the House Judiciary for a second day of questions on both his handling of Kirk’s assassination and his management of the FBI.
The post FBI Director Kash Patel Says ‘No Credible Information’ Epstein Trafficked Victims to Others appeared first on TIME.
