The Federal Bureau of Intelligence Director Kash Patel was intensely questioned by the Senate on Wednesday regarding US President Donald Trump's name in the Epstein files, as well as Charlie Kirk's assassination.
Senators of both the Republican Party and the Democrat Party asked Patel for more clarity and transparency regarding Jeffery Epstein who was arrested on charges of sex trafficking of minors and was shortly found dead in his jail cell in 2019. Epstein was spotted with Trump in photographs on multiple occasions.
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With the Atlantic and the Wall Street Journal reporting that Trump had written a "suggestive letter" to Epstein on his birthday. the White House denied this. Republican Senator John Kennedy questioned Patel on whether Epstein trafficked minors to anyone else other than himself.
With Patel responding that based on what they knew so far that he had found no such evidence and claimed that the law constrained him from releasing more details.
Politico reported that District Judge Richard Berman said that "the government is the logical party to make comprehensive disclosure to the public of the Epstein files".
Berman stated that instead of releasing a small number of files in its possession which he said could cause "a diversion", the government should release the bulk of all the files from its previous investigation.
When Democrat Representative Zoe Lofgren asked him how many times Trump's name was mentioned in the Epstein files, Patel replied that, "He did not know."
Patel was also grilled about his choice to post on social media, hours after Kirk's assasination that the suspect was in custody when that was not the case. He responded that he meant that he had eliminated a subject from the FBI's list of suspects and could have worded it better.
During the hearing, Patel got into heated arguments with Democrat Senators Adam Schiff and Cory Booker when criticised for his handling of the Epstein files and the Kirk murder investigation, according to reports.
Booker told Patel that he wasn't "long for the job", citing his handling of the aforementioned events. "You are an embarrassment to the division of this country, your time is over," Patel responded.
When Schiff questioned him regarding the same, Patel responded by calling him "the biggest fraud to ever sit in the United States Senate".
"You are a disgrace to this institution and an utter coward. You are a political buffoon at best," the FBI director added.
"The FBI director will always be nothing more than an internet troll," Schiff said in his response.
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