Under questioning from Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) about President Donald Trump‘s presence in the files gathered by law enforcement concerning the late child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, FBI Director Kash Patel said that he could not account fully for the number of Trump mentions in the files because he has “reviewed not the entirety of the files.”
Swalwell sought clarity on Patel’s answer, asking: “You haven’t reviewed all of the Epstein files?” Patel responded: “Personally, no.”
Swalwell: You haven’t reviewed all of the Epstein files?
Patel: No.
Swalwell: Your testimony today is you have not reviewed all the files?
Patel: What I’ve been doing is providing the safest country this country has seen… pic.twitter.com/tmMVsg3pxC
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 17, 2025
Noting Patel’s position as the Director of the FBI and asserting that the Epstein case is the “largest sex trafficking case the FBI has ever been a part of,” Swalwell asked Patel again, “your testimony today is you have not reviewed all the files?”
Patel responded with a list of priorities that he presented as leaving him without enough time to review all the Epstein files.
Patel replied: “What I’ve been doing is been busy providing the safest country this country has seen in modern U.S. history in historic speed because the men and women of the FBI are given the resources to reduce the homicide rate, to reduce the drug trafficking rate, to reduce the amount of children that are being trafficked.”
Swalwell and Patel then talked over each other as Swalwell contended that children being trafficked would “appreciate” the FBI Director reading the Epstein files and Patel boasting of “record high” arrests.
Swalwell attempted multiple times to get Patel to answer the following question: “Did you tell Attorney General Pam Bondi that Donald Trump’s name was in the Epstein files?”
Kash Patel refuses to give a direct answer whether he told AG Bondi that Trump’s name is in the Epstein files pic.twitter.com/kE7du1MVzm
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 17, 2025
Patel would not answer the question and ultimately responded by asking Swalwell “Why don’t you serve your constituency by focusing on reducing violent crime in this country? And the number of pedophiles that are illegally harbored in your sanctuary cities in California?”
Swalwell asserted in response that “we will take your evasiveness as a consciousness of guilt.”
[NOTE concerning Patel’s claim on reduction of homicide rate and providing the “safest country” in modern history: President Trump has repeatedly said the U.S. is a “dangerous” country, and recently declared an emergency in Washington, DC, sending in National Guard troops, as he did earlier in California and has said he will do in Illinois and Tennessee.
In DC, the President cited unacceptable homicide rates as a spur to action, asserting “the murder rate in Washington today is higher than that of Bogotá, Colombia, Mexico City, some of the places that you hear about as being the worst places on Earth.”
The Department of Justice distributed a January press release saying “violent crime for 2024 in the District of Columbia is down 35% from 2023 and is the lowest it has been in over 30 years.” DOJ data reported DC had 187 in 2024, a drop from 274 in 2023.]