Kash Patel’s second day of hearings on Capitol Hill deteriorated into the FBI director yelling at members of Congress and attacking their records as “bull****.”
Patel’s two-day oversight hearings followed a chaotic week at the bureau, which is overseeing an investigation into the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk on the heels of a damning lawsuit accusing FBI leadership of waging a politically motivated purge of its ranks.
The lawsuit and the investigation into the death of Patel’s friend follow a tumultuous nine months at the FBI, which President Donald Trump has sought to reshape with loyalists to dominate an agency that the president believes has been weaponized against him.
But Patel’s leadership came under scrutiny months earlier, after the Department of Justice declared there was “no basis” to release any more documents about sex offender and former Trump ally Jeffrey Epstein, sparking allegations of a government-wide cover up to protect powerful public figures who exploited and abused young girls.
Lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday repeatedly zeroed in on Patel’s handling of the investigation and Trump’s involvement — and received a series of evasive answers and personal attacks in exchange.
When asked directly whether Trump’s name appeared in the documents, Patel said that his agency has released “all credible information.” But when asked what he did when he learned Trump’s name was inside the documents, Patel admitted he hasn’t reviewed the “entirety” of them.
“I have reviewed not the entirety of the files,” Patel said.
“You haven’t reviewed all of the Epstein files?” asked Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell.
“Personally? No,” Patel replied.
“You’re the director of the FBI,” Swalwell said. “This is the largest sex trafficking case the FBI has been a part of. The buck stops at the top. And your testimony today is you have not reviewed all the files?”
“What I’ve been doing is providing the safest country this country has seen in modern U.S. history,” Patel said.
Patel then refused to answer whether he ever told Attorney General Pam Bondi that Trump’s name appeared in the documents.
Swalwell, enunciating every word, asked again: “Did you tell the attorney general that Donald Trump’s name is in the Epstein files?”
“Why don’t you try spelling it out if you’re going to mock me?” Patel replied.
“Use the alphabet,” he said. “No? A, B, C, D, E, F — don’t wanna do it?”
Asked again, Patel told Swalwell that he should “try serving your constituency by focusing on reducing violent crime in this country” and accused him of “illegally harboring” pedophiles in California cities.
“We’ll take your evasiveness as a consciousness of guilt,” Swalwell said.
Earlier, Patel claimed that recent court orders have legally barred him from releasing additional information about the case. “I’m not going to break the law to satisfy your curiosity,” he told Rep. Jamie Raskin.
But the federal judge in New York overseeing Epstein’s trafficking case said limited grand jury material in the court’s possession “pales in comparison” to the evidence in the government’s possession, and that “the government is the logical party to make comprehensive disclosure to the public” of the Epstein files.
Later, when Swalwell asked if the director would recuse himself from any investigations into 20 people he identified as “government gangsters” in his book of the same name, Patel balked at the question.
“I’m going to borrow your terminology and call bulls*** on your entire career in Congress,” Patel told Swalwell.
“It has been a disgrace to the American people,” Patel said.
Swalwell asked again if Patel would recuse himself from such investigations.
“No,” Patel answered.
Pressed by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie whether he would meet with Epstein’s victims and accusers, Patel was noncommittal.
“The FBI and the professionals who are handling the cases will,” Patel replied.
Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal accused Patel of creating a “giant cover-up” after discovering Trump’s name “was all over these files,” sparking another round of shouting and heated back-and-forth between the FBI director and a member of Congress.
Republicans on the committee voted against four attempts to try to force other administration officials to testify about the case, with Massie the only GOP lawmaker who joined Democrats in support.
Republic members blocked motions to subpoena financial records tied to Epstein labeled as “suspicious activity reports,” testimony from FBI deputy director Dan Bongino, and information about a prison transfer for Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
At one point, however, Patel tentatively agreed to investigate Epstein’s estate — but only to defend the Trump administration’s claim that a signature on a birthday card the president allegedly wrote to Epstein was fake.
Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz, in an apparent attempt to show that Patel was covering for the president, asked the FBI director whether he would investigate the Epstein estate for “putting out a fake document with the president’s signature linking him to the world’s largest pedophile ring.”
“On what basis?” Patel asked.
“On what basis?” Moskowitz responded. “They literally put out a fake document, according to the president, with a fake signature. It’s a forgery of the president of the United States’ signature. That’s the basis.”
“Sure,” Patel said. “I’ll do it.”
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