FBI has no evidence Epstein trafficked victims to others: Patel

(NewsNation) — In a Senate committee hearing, FBI Director Kash Patel said billionaire and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein did not traffic women to anyone other than himself.

Patel said he had not reviewed all the Epstein files but had read a good portion of them.

The files have been the subject of considerable debate after President Donald Trump backtracked on his campaign promises to release the files, which he has recently called a Democrat hoax.

The release of the files has now been left to the Justice Department, which has given some files to a House committee.

When asked whether Epstein had trafficked victims to anyone else, Patel said he had not.

"No one, for the information that we have in the files," Patel said.

He was also questioned on the way the files are being released.

"We will release everything we are legally permitted to do so," Patel said.

He went on to note that neither the Obama administration nor the Biden administration had released the Epstein files and noted that there is limited information in the files due to limited search warrants and non-prosecution agreements.

"I am not saying that others were not trafficked and others were not involved," Patel said. "What I am telling you is based on the information we have."

Patel pointed to early investigations where Epstein wasn ot fully investigated as a reason information is not fully known.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told NewsNation that all the files that can be released should be and the FBI should appeal to the courts to allow the release of other files.

"Why? Why is that important? Because the American people want to know. And this is the central issue. Who, if anyone, did Epstein traffic these young women to, besides himself, and if there were other people, why weren't they prosecuted?" Kennedy said. "That's a very fair question. The American people are entitled to a to a definitive answer to that."