“Director Patel’s testimony raises more questions than answers.”
FBI Director Kash Patel bobbed, he weaved, he sneered, he smeared, but he would not answer. Before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) nine times asked a yes-or-no question: Had he told AG Pam Bondi that Donald Trump’s nemae was in the Epstein files?
That’s pretty much how it went with Patel. Asked why he hadn’t released all the Epstein case files in the FBI’s possession, as Donald Trump promised to during his campaign, Patel claimed he could not:
“I’m not going to break the law to satisfy your curiosity,” Patel said during the second day of Congressional oversight hearings after Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) challenged him on why he hasn’t released more of the files.
But Patel appears to be mischaracterizing those recent court orders, which came amid a hurried effort by the Trump administration to ask federal judges for permission to release grand jury materials stemming from the case of Epstein and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.
Judges considering the ask said it appeared to be an effort to confuse the public, noting that the materials consisted of only a few dozen pages of hearsay — much of which became public during court proceedings — and were dwarfed by the FBI’s massive trove of records.
In fact, one of the judges who ruled on the grand jury matter — and who presided over Epstein’s criminal case before he died by suicide in a jail cell in 2019 — said the Trump administration had the power to release the records.
Asked whether there was evidence of other men to whom Epstein may have trafficked young women, Patel claimed there was no credible evidence. Rep Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) shot back:
“According to victims these documents in your possession, detail at least 20 men, including Staley, CEO Barclays Bank, who Jeffrey Epstein trafficked victims to. That list includes 19 over individuals, one Hollywood producer worth a few hundred million dollars. One very prominent banker, one high profile government official, one high profile former politician, one owner of a car company in Italy, one rock star, one magician, at least six billionaires including a billionaire from Canada. We know these people exist in the FBI files.”
Citing those names, survivors of Epstein’s abuse responded Thursday night with a public letter:
“Director Patel’s testimony raises more questions than answers. For years he has railed about the incompleteness of previous investigations. He is right about that: previous investigations were indeed incomplete. So what is his plan to make sure that a thorough and unbiased investigation is conducted at last?”
There is none.
“Those previous administrations are the ones that Kash Patel spent years accusing of a cover-up. Now he will pass the buck to them to decide that information about other men in the Epstein-Maxwell trafficking ring is not even worth following up on? There are victims and witnesses who, to this day, have still not been interviewed. Will they continue to be ignored?”
For as long as possible.
“As head of the FBI, Director Patel can work now to remedy that, in a way that finally centers survivor voices and finally pursues the whole truth. The public demands it; the victims deserve it; and our system of justice without fear or favor requires it.
“Survivors are waiting.”
They aren’t going away. Patel may go before them.
* * * * *
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