The director of the FBI, Kash Patel, confronted on Wednesday a second day of questions by American legislators, defending their management of research archives on Jeffrey Epstein against the claims of democratic legislators and a republican legislator that the FBI is protecting information related to the financial and late sexual offender.
Appearing before a panel of the US House of Representatives. UU., Patel offered a variety of explanations for the Trump administration’s face to release material in Epstein’s investigations.
He argued that judicial orders prevented the release of some evidence and that in other areas the FBI had limited material in its possession.
“We are releasing as much as they legally allow it,” Patel told the Judicial Committee of the Chamber.
The Department of Justice enraged many prominent supporters of President Donald Trump with his decision in July not to publish additional investigation documents, after increasing expectations for complete dissemination.
Many in Trump’s political base believed that his administration would imply other rich and powerful people in the alleged sexual trafficking of Epstein minor girls.
Republican representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, critic of the Trump administration management of Epstein’s investigation and co -author of the legislation to require more revelations about it, said that the alleged victims of Epstein had told him that they had given information about others that had been involved in Epstein’s abuse.
“We know that these people exist in the FBI files, files that you control. I don’t know exactly who they are, but the FBI yes. Have you launched any research on any of these people?” Massie asked.
Patel replied that the FBI would investigate “credible information” but that it has not received such information.
Patel told a Senate panel on Tuesday that the FBI has no credible evidence that Epstein, who died for suicide in 2019 while waiting for the trial for sexual traffic charges, trafficked women and minor girls to anyone who is not himself.
The problem has caused a rare income between Trump and its Make America Great Again Again movement. Trump, an Epstein friend, has urged his supporters to move forward and rule out the problem as a deception pressed by his Democratic opponents.
Three federal judges have rejected the requests of the Department of Justice to reveal material of the great jurors who investigated Epstein and his former partner, Ghislaine Maxwell. The judges found and the prosecutors recognized that the material contained little information that was no longer public.
Patel also suggested that another material, including witness interviews reports, was protected from dissemination by judicial orders. He told the legislators that the FBI has no videos that involve others in the alleged crimes of Epstein.
Patel had promoted the statements about Epstein during the appearances in conservative podcasts before Trump nominated him to lead the FBI. The Democrats accused Patel of trying to protect Trump’s information, who has not been accused of misconduct related to Epstein.
“How did you go from being a crusade for responsibility and transparency to be part of conspiracy and cover -up?” Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the main Democrat in the Judicial Committee of the Chamber.
The Department of Justice has begun to deliver records to the Chamber’s Supervision Committee, which has cited Epstein material.
