FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday blamed past administrations for the “original sin” he argued hamstrung the bureau in its prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein.
Patel pointed a finger at Alex Acosta, a former U.S. attorney who first prosecuted Epstein’s case, who went on to serve as Labor Secretary under the first Trump administration.
“The original sin in the Epstein case was the way it was initially brought by Mr. Acosta back in 2006. The original case involved a very limited search warrant or set of search warrants, and didn’t take as much investigatory material as it should have seized,” Patel said.
“If I were the FBI director then, it wouldn’t have happened.”
But during the hearing, Patel faced pressure from Democrats and Republicans to reveal more details about the case involving the convicted sex offender who killed himself while in prison when awaiting additional related charges.
Patel, who previously discussed the Epstein matter on podcasts and suggested there had been a cover up, said his answers on the case were “not going to satisfy many, many, many people.”
In July, the Justice Department put out a memo saying Epstein did not keep a client list and said no further releases of information in the case would be warranted. Those files have since been subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee and have begun to be turned over, including a birthday note President Trump wrote to Epstein referencing that the two men have “certain things in common.”
“The essential question for the American people is this, they know that Epstein trafficked young women for sex to himself – they want to know who, if anyone else, he trafficked these young women too,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said.
“And that’s a very fair question. I want to know that answer. And I think you’re going to have to do more to satisfy the American people’s understandable curiosity.”
Patel said there is “no credible information” that Epstein arranged sex with minors for others beyond himself.
“If there were, I would bring the case yesterday that he trafficked to other individuals,” Patel said.
Patel then went deeper, saying the search warrants in past investigations were for too narrow a time period while a related non-prosecution agreement “also barred future prosecutions for those involved at that time.”
“The Department of Justice and the FBI never releases information on investigations that are not credible, and we don’t release the names of victims who aren’t credible, but at the same time, we don’t release the names of victims who were credible,” he said.
“And so the information we are releasing now is historic, and it is also to the maximum capacity that the law allows. And I know that’s not going to satisfy many, many, many people, but if they wanted it done right, then the investigation from its origination should have been done right, and he [Epstein] should not have been given a ‘Get Out of Jail Free cad’ to do jail on the weekends for 12 hours a day, and he should have been investigated fully for the entirety of his crime and criminal enterprise, not just from 1997 to 2001,” Patel said.
Acosta is scheduled to appear before the House Oversight committee for a transcribed interview for its Epstein probe on Sept. 19 — a decision Acosta made voluntarily, according to Chairman James Comer’s (R-Ky.) office.
Patel largely refused to answer questions about the memo and who held responsibility for the conclusion that no further information should be released.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the panel, asked why it was unsigned.
“Would you prefer I use autopen?” Patel quipped, a reference to an investigation into President Biden.