Kash Patel’s Epstein files problem is not going away.
Over two days of hearings, Democrats hammered the FBI director — who once advocated for the wholesale release of the files connected to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — over the bureau’s reluctance to release the full trove.
They also accused Patel of seeking to protect President Donald Trump from potentially embarrassing references in the files, of giving short-shrift to Epstein’s victims and of refusing to follow all investigative leads.
“Now we’re seeing one very clear reason why you want to build a political FBI: the Epstein files,” House Judiciary ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said Wednesday. “You want an FBI blindly loyal to Trump and to you as his enforcer so you can continue your cover-up of a massive international sex trafficking ring with more than 1,000 victims, betraying all of the survivors of the sexual violence.”
Raskin’s comments came on the second of Patel’s two-day tour of Capitol Hill, which started Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee before heading over to the House’s counterpart panel. In both venues, Patel advocated for the agency’s priorities.
But his 10 total hours of testimony were also marked by intense and hostile exchanges with Democrats, often related to the Epstein investigation. And his appearance Wednesday was interrupted by Democrats moving to subpoena four major banks in an effort to obtain Epstein’s financial records — a motion that failed by a single vote.
Over the two days, Patel openly feuded with Democratic Sens. Cory Booker and Adam Schiff, as well as Rep. Eric Swalwell; he appeared to relish the verbal sparring, which the White House’s rapid response feed quickly amplified. In one heated exchange with Swalwell, Patel said he would not recuse himself from any investigations into 60 people he once labeled “government gangsters” — including Swalwell.
“I don’t give a damn what they say about me,” Patel said when Rep. Russell Fry (R-S.C.) asked him to respond to a Democratic fusillade.
On Epstein, Patel insisted the FBI is releasing as many files as possible but is hamstrung by court orders and a nearly 20-year-old deal struck between the Justice Department and Epstein that have impeded crucial avenues of investigation. He repeatedly noted that the Trump administration had released more Epstein-related files than its predecessors.
“I’m not going to break the law to satisfy your curiosity,” Patel told Democrats, who in turn countered that the FBI director is misrepresenting his own power to publicly produce new materials judges have said is in the purview of the FBI and Justice Department.
Patel heard from Republicans on the Epstein issue, too. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) joined Democrats in pressing Patel to release witness interview summaries during the House Judiciary hearing Wednesday. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said Tuesday the FBI needs to move to release Epstein-related records.
“The issue’s not gonna go away,” Kennedy said. “I think you’re gonna have to do more to satisfy the American people’s understandable curiosity in that regard.”
House Democrats proved that point Wednesday, when they forced votes on issuing subpoenas for four banks that did business with Epstein and subsequently told regulators about $1.5 billion in suspicious transactions, as well as for the purposes of obtaining testimony from FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and records from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Bureau of Prisons Director William Marshall.
Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky was the only Republican to support Democrats in their attempts, which were squelched by Republicans. But failure Wednesday was not a foregone conclusion: In a House Oversight subcommittee in July, some Republicans helped push through Democratic subpoena efforts related to the Epstein files, which has resulted in the release of materials in the Justice Department’s possession.
Massie is also not giving up on a separate attempt to force a House floor vote on the more comprehensive release of the Epstein files, and only needs one more signatory to proceed.
The issue has put all of Trump’s allies in an uncomfortable position, caught between their promises of transparency and realities of operating the country’s sprawling law enforcement agencies. Patel is no exception.
“Is it your assertion that these victims aren’t credible?” Massie asked Patel Wednesday. “How can you sit here and in front of the Senate and say there are no names?”
Democrats also pressed Patel over and over again to explain his own personal reversal on the issue, as well as the bureau’s ongoing efforts to both disclose Epstein-related documents and continue to investigate his sex trafficking ring.
Pressed by Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-N.Y.), Patel said he would consider opening an investigation into the Epstein estate over Trump’s claim that a suggestive letter in Epstein’s 50th-birthday book was forged.
“Sure, I’ll do it,” Patel said.
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