By Zachary Stieber
Contributing Writer
U.S. authorities will soon release files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, FBI Director Kash Patel said on Thursday in testimony to Congress.
“In the near future,” Patel told Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., during a hearing in Washington after being asked when he thinks the FBI will finish processing the materials and release them.
“Before I die?” Kennedy quipped.
“Senator, we are, we’ve been working on that and we are doing it in a way that protects victims and also doesn’t put out into the ether information that is irrelevant for … the public, such as CSAM,” Patel responded, referring to child sexual abuse material.
He said the FBI is working with the Department of Justice on the matter.
The DOJ in February released some Epstein-related files, but the documents, including flight logs from Epstein’s plane, had already been made public in court cases.
“We will bring everything we find to the DOJ to be fully assessed and transparently disseminated to the American people as it should be. The oath we take is to the Constitution, and under my leadership, that promise will be upheld without compromise,” Patel said in a statement at the time.
Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters outside the White House this week that the FBI is reviewing tens of thousands of videos that were in Epstein’s possession.
“There are tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children or child porn, and there are hundreds of victims, and … that’s what they’re going through right now,” Bondi said. “The FBI is diligently going through that.”
When President Donald Trump was asked about the matter on April 22, he told reporters: “I don’t know. I’ll speak to the attorney general about that. I really don’t know.”
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to procuring a child for prostitution. After being released, he spent time with some of the most famous people in the world, many of whom have since said they were unaware of his alleged crimes.
In 2019, Epstein was arrested by federal authorities, who accused him of sex trafficking minors.
While awaiting trial at a detention facility in New York City, Epstein died. The city’s medical examiner determined that his death was a suicide.
Others, including pathologist Michael Baden, who was hired by Epstein’s family, have indicated the death was, or was likely, a murder.
“Did Jeffrey Epstein hang himself or did somebody kill him?” Kennedy asked Patel on Thursday.
“Senator, I believe he hung himself in a cell in the Metropolitan Detention Center,” Patel said.
