Kash Patel LIVE: Epstein Video Played In Congressional Hearing; Patel EXPLODES — US Senate — US News

[0:00] areas, knowing that they're extremely volatile and jeopardizing the safety of our agents. [0:05] Did the National Guard do anything in Washington to help the FBI stay safe from these dangerous [0:12] elements? They established perimeters. Established perimeters. And the criminals knew about it, [0:17] so they— It was a visible force, sir, so they kind of saw it. Well, what you did—I commend [0:22] you for what you did, and I think the FBI coming in—we have a crime problem in Memphis. The FBI [0:26] has helped. The DEA will help, and the ATF will help. I don't think the National Guard's going to [0:31] help, and what I've seen—they're not trained in—they're not trained in law enforcement, [0:35] are they? No, sir. And so that could be a problem. Who will direct the National Guard in Memphis? [0:40] Will it be—will they have control over your agents? No, sir, they won't. Who will—who will [0:46] have control over your agents? You? Well, the SAC and then ultimately the chain of command up to [0:51] Washington, D.C. will control the FBI, but there's a task force that was put together that is going to [0:55] be led by an interagency. The heads of U.S. Marshals, DEA, and FBI will be working together [1:01] with DHS collectively on this. Have you visited Memphis before? Yes, sir, I have. So you know [1:07] how good a city it is? I love Memphis. A lot of us do. And Memphis is a great city, [1:14] great history. Civil Rights Museum might say something about slavery, but that's—that was [1:19] history. It needs to be taught. Blues, Elvis— Beale Street. Beale Street, right. Barbecue. And people [1:25] should come. It's not a troubled city. We've got some crime, but it's not a troubled city. We're not [1:29] troubled, and we love our city, and we hope that the National Guard doesn't come in and cause people [1:34] to have questions about Memphis, because it's a city they should visit. Let me ask you this about—you [1:40] said that the homicide rates are coming down to an all-time low? In modern recorded U.S. history, yes, sir. [1:45] When does modern recorded history start? I think the FBI—and I'll get back to you on this—has stats on that [1:51] going back about 30 years, sir. Okay, I was thinking back to Ozzie and Harriet, and I didn't [1:55] think you could beat Ozzie and Harriet's time. Secondly, you mentioned the Epstein case. Did any [2:04] of the women that were victims, and they came up here and had a press conference and all, did any [2:09] of them contact your office and ask to give information? To my knowledge, no, sir. If they did, [2:14] let me ask you first. Is there a statute of limitations on sex crimes like that with sex with a [2:20] minor rape? The DOJ is the expert, but I do not believe there's a statute on that—limitations on [2:25] that. So if there's not a statute of limitations, should you not be interviewing those people who [2:29] know who raped them and the names and the places and give you that information? That seems like [2:34] that's a treasure trove of information, and it's a serious, serious, serious number of crimes. Sir, [2:39] I couldn't agree with you more. We've been very public about asking individuals to come forward [2:43] with new information, and we would run out every single lead on that. Well, I'm sure the women will come [2:48] forward, especially today, to be sure that they will get an opportunity, because that seems like [2:52] something we ought to do. Mr. Driscoll, what was his reputation? I can't comment on Mr. Driscoll's [3:03] matter. It's an ongoing litigation. Yeah, but his reputation you can tell us about. I can tell you—I [3:08] can't tell you about his reputation. His work has been laid out in that lawsuit. How many of the FBI [3:15] agents who worked on the January 6th case have been fired? I don't have that number, sir. Do you have a [3:23] ballpark figure? No, but I can tell you that individuals based on case assignments in the [3:28] FBI that I have led have not been terminated for case assignments. Thank you, sir. Come back to [3:33] Memphis and work with Kevin Kane in our tourism bureau. He's great. Thank you. And thank you for [3:38] your work in Memphis. Mr. Chairman, I have an unanimous consent request. Gentleman's recognized. So, [3:45] four documents I'd like to introduce into the record. The first one is Jeffrey Epstein's [3:51] classic story played out for years in plain sight. And Acosta is quoted in here saying, [3:57] I was told Epstein belonged to intelligence and to leave it alone. The second document is [4:02] entitled, What Epstein's Bodyguard Warned About His CIA Connections. The third document is from Fox [4:11] Digital. It's titled, Epstein's Private Calendar Reveals Planned Meetings with Obama Admin Official [4:18] CIA Chief. And the last document is Wall Street Journal article that highlights Ehud Barak's 36 [4:27] meetings with Jeffrey Epstein. He was the former prime minister of Israel and head of military [4:33] intelligence for Israel. It may have held that title when he met Epstein. And then, yes. [4:41] The gentleman will hold for a second. The gentleman from Maryland is recognized. [4:44] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just one UC request. This is Judge Engelmayer's decision from [4:48] August and U.S. v. Epstein stating, The government's 100,000 pages of Epstein files [4:54] dwarfs the 70-odd pages of Epstein grand jury materials. [4:59] Without objection, the gentleman from Kentucky is recognized for five minutes. [5:03] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Director Patel, I watched some of your Senate hearing yesterday [5:07] when Senator Kennedy asked you, You've seen most of the files. Who, if anyone, [5:12] did Epstein traffic these women to besides himself? You replied, according to the transcript, [5:17] there is no credible information that he trafficked them to anyone else. You also said somewhere in the [5:24] hearing and here today that the problem is that the case files are constrained by limited search [5:29] warrants from 2006 to 2007, and that the non-prosecution agreement hamstrung future investigations. [5:36] Those constraints only apply to Southern District of Florida. They do not apply to Southern District of New [5:42] York, the location of the 2019 sex trafficking indictment, which produced many things, including a series of [5:48] F.D. 302 documents, according to victims who cooperated with the FBI in that investigation. [5:56] These documents in FBI possession, your possession, detail at least 20 men, including Mr. Jeff Staley, [6:04] CEO of Barclays Bank, who Jeffrey Epstein trafficked victims to. Victims including minors, such as Virginia [6:11] Roberts, you free. May she rest in peace. That list also includes at least 19 other individuals, [6:19] one Hollywood producer worth a few hundred million dollars, one royal prince, one high-profile individual [6:25] in the music industry, one very prominent banker, one high-profile government official, one high-profile [6:32] former politician, one owner of a car company in Italy, one rock star, one magician, at least six billionaires, [6:39] including a billionaire from Canada. We know these people exist in the FBI files, the files that you [6:46] control. I don't know exactly who they are, but the FBI does. Have you launched any investigations [6:52] into any of these people? And have you seen these 302 documents? Sir, I have asked my FBI agents to [7:02] review the entirety of the Epstein files and bring forth any credible information. And we're working with [7:08] Congress not only to divulge that information and produce it to you, but any investigations that [7:12] arise from any credible investigation will be brought. There have been no new materials brought [7:16] to me launching a new indictment. So is the loophole here or is it your assertion that these victims [7:25] aren't credible, that the 302s maybe didn't produce credible statements that rise to a probable cause? [7:32] It's not my assertion, sir. It's the assertion of two different United States attorney's offices from [7:39] three separate administrations who investigated those same materials in a lifetime. [7:44] The 302 documents in the FBI's possession? [7:47] They reviewed all that. Yes, sir. [7:49] And so have you reviewed those 302 documents that where the victims name the people who victimized them? [7:56] I personally know, but the FBI has. So how can you sit here and in front of the Senate and say there are no [8:05] names? I named one today. I said we are not in the practice at the Department of Justice and the FBI of [8:14] releasing victims' names. That is not what we do. We are also not in the habit of releasing incredible information. [8:21] That's not what we do. But multiple authorities have looked at the entirety of what we have. [8:26] Okay. I got to move on here. Were you present when the AG had the White House event when she released [8:31] the binders to the social media influencers? I was, yes. So if you're willing to meet with social [8:37] media influencers who stood to benefit from the sensational and sad stories of these victims, [8:43] will you meet with the victims as well? The FBI will meet with anyone who has new information. [8:48] Will you personally meet with them? The FBI and the professionals who are handling the cases will. [8:53] Were you instructed that it was important to release the documents to the Oversight Committee [8:58] on the day of my introduction of the discharge petition to release these files? [9:04] I don't know what day that was, so no. Well, they were released that day and there were victims' [9:09] names who weren't redacted because they were in such a rush and the victims are not happy about that. [9:14] Have you investigated any of the CIA connections? Have you seen the CIA file on Jeffrey Epstein? And if [9:22] you wanted to see it, would they show it to you? [9:25] Well, I can speak for the FBI, and that's presuming there's a CIA case file. And I've reviewed [9:31] everything that the interagency, not I, the FBI, that was provided to us. [9:35] Would you be willing to look at the CIA file on Jeffrey Epstein? [9:39] If there is such a file, and if it has not already been turned over to the FBI, the FBI will look at [9:44] any new investigative leads. Have you made any progress on the pipe bomb investigation January 6th, [9:52] and have you made any progress on the motive of the Las Vegas shooter? [9:57] As to the first, it's an ongoing investigation, and we have made progress. As to the second, sir, [10:03] I'll have to get back to you. All right. Thank you. I yield back. [10:06] Mr. Chairman, I have a unanimous consent request. [10:07] Chairman yields back. Unanimous consent request from the gentleman from New York. [10:09] I ask unanimous consent to introduce an unsigned memorandum from July 7th, 2025, that says we did [10:16] not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties [10:21] with the insignia of the Department of Justice and the FBI. [10:25] Objection. [10:26] Mr. Chairman, I have a unanimous consent request. It's an article entitled DOJ deletes study showing [10:35] domestic terrorists are most often right-wing. [10:39] Objection. [10:40] Thank you. [10:41] The gentleman from Georgia is recognized for five minutes. [10:46] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Director Patel, thank you for being here today. I want to first talk about the [10:55] significant role that the FBI plays in combating the national security threats posed by our nation's [11:06] greatest threat, our nation's greatest security threat, China and the Chinese Communist Party. [11:14] It's a fact that China is America's most significant national security threat. Isn't that correct? [11:23] I would say so, sir. [11:24] And you would agree with me that China wants to dominate the United States of America? [11:31] I think that's largely their plan. [11:33] And they want to dominate the world, both militarily and economically. Isn't that correct? [11:41] I think so. [11:42] And sir, you've been FBI director for the last, what, eight months? [11:49] Seven months, yes. [11:50] Seven months. And during that time, have you held any stock in any companies founded in China? [11:59] I don't believe so. [12:00] Well, you do own stock in a company known as Elite Depot, don't you? [12:06] Which one, sorry? [12:07] Elite Depot. You own stock. [12:10] I think that's, I'll have to get back to you. I think it's a law firm and it's a company out of Singapore. [12:16] Okay, well, no. The company out of Singapore, which is owned by Elite Depot, is the Cheyenne Company, [12:25] which was founded in China. Correct? [12:29] That company operates out of Taiwan. [12:31] Well, they changed their headquarters from China back in 2022 to Singapore for tax purposes. [12:40] But it's owned by a Chinese billionaire. I think his name is Charlie Zouf. [12:46] And you own stock in the company that owns Cheyenne. [12:52] Which I disclosed during my confirmation process. [12:54] You certainly did. [12:56] And now, do you still hold that stock in that Chinese company? [13:02] In pursuant to the Department of Justice who reviewed my material that was submitted during my confirmation process, [13:10] I was able to hold certain stocks and they made the decision. [13:13] So you still hold the stocks that you have? [13:17] You still hold on to these Chinese stocks, these stocks in this Chinese company? [13:24] I disagree that it's a Chinese company, but the DOJ, when you're appointed, makes a call on what you can and can't possess. [13:32] Well, now, let me ask you this. Chinese companies steal trademarks. [13:37] They produce counterfeit products and sell them over the Internet on platforms such as Xi'an. [13:43] They steal intellectual property. They steal data from American companies. [13:51] And to me, it seems inconsistent with your role as FBI director that you would own stock in a company that is based in a country that is the nation's premier national security threat. [14:07] It's like you are putting your own financial security over the security of the nation. [14:15] I disagree with that characterization. [14:16] Well, I think the American people look at it like it's a classic situation of the fox guarding the henhouse. [14:24] If the FBI is charged with investigating espionage, economic espionage, by companies controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, [14:40] and you are the director of the FBI, you've got a conflict of interest. [14:44] Sir, I would just show if there's any intimation that I'm against. [14:50] Why are you holding on to this stock? [14:52] It wasn't a decision I made. [14:53] And it's valued at up to $5 million as of when you last reported. Correct? $5 million in stock? [15:02] No, I don't follow it. [15:04] You don't follow it, but you're still making money off of it. [15:07] I don't have any money off of anything. [15:08] What I have done... [15:11] Trump's trade policies directly impact the value of that Chinese stock. [15:17] Won't you agree with that? [15:20] Which trade policy? I'm not a trade expert. [15:21] Okay, all right. [15:22] But I want to tell you this... [15:23] You're going to play crazy on me today. [15:24] Let me ask you this question. [15:26] Why are you hiding pedophiles? [15:30] Why are you shielding pedophiles? [15:34] Why are you protecting pedophiles? [15:37] That is maybe the most offensive thing you could say to me, given the numbers... [15:42] Well, you have not released the Epstein files. [15:45] ...of pedophiles. [15:46] If you were aware of the Epstein client list that was published in the 18,000 emails released... [15:52] I'm the gentleman that has expired. [15:54] The gentleman yields back. [15:55] Can I just... [15:55] Can I answer the questions? [15:56] Can I just respond? [15:57] Of course. [15:57] The gentleman can answer the questions. [15:59] Since I took over the FBI, there has been a 33% increase. [16:03] Sir, all of that started under Christopher Wray. [16:05] Your time is done. [16:06] No, it didn't. [16:07] The witness gets to answer the question, and then we'll go to our next... [16:10] All of that started under the previous FBI director, sir. [16:11] And you're coming in here trying to take credit for something that a previous director instituted and largely brought to conclusion. [16:19] I take no credit. [16:20] I think it's been clear that the director's numbers are so much better than the previous director. [16:27] It's deceptive. [16:27] You want to answer the question? [16:28] I take no credit. [16:30] The men and women of the FBI have seen a 33% increase in the number of counterintelligence arrests out of the PRC. [16:35] And so all of a sudden, when you're coming in seven months ago, gentlemen, it's time, heaven or earth. [16:41] And on the pedophile accusation, we have arrested 1,500 child predators in the last seven months. [16:49] Under investigations initiated by the prior directorship. [16:53] Appreciate the director's good work, and we really appreciate that the time the gentleman has expired. [16:57] We now go to the gentleman from Texas. [16:59] I thank the chairman. [17:00] I thank the FBI director for coming before the committee. [17:03] I assume the FBI director, Mr. Patel, I believe you probably agree with me that there is a significant organized effort on the left side of the political spectrum to advance criminal organizations being able to put more criminals out on the streets. [17:20] And that what we've seen, we've seen this in daily action. [17:22] Are you familiar with the report that came out this last Monday from the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund? [17:27] I'm not familiar with that, sorry. [17:29] So this report came out this past Monday, and it said that a significant amount of the money flowing out of George Soros and other leftist organizations and funders has been funding DAs and prosecutors and, quote, [17:43] Many of these DAs had never managed an office, prosecuted a criminal case, developed organizational policies. [17:48] In dozens of America's largest cities and counties, this report finds these progressive district attorneys have outsourced core parts of the American criminal justice system to activists and political donors, [17:59] taking direction and advice on everything from staffing decisions and communications strategy. [18:03] Organizations, it's a complex web of donors going in through these organizations to radical, put radical DAs and prosecutors out there, putting criminals on the streets. [18:17] Does the FBI director agree that this exists and is a problem? [18:21] I will accept the factual representation, and if that exists, it is a problem. [18:25] The organizations such as TIDES, the Fair and Just Prosecution, Brenner Center for Justice, Partnership for Safety and Justice, the Vera Institute of Justice, [18:34] the amount of dollars flowing from George Soros through and to these organizations and to the various prosecutors that have resulted in increased crime on our streets, [18:43] including the brutal murder of the Ukrainian refugee in Charlotte. [18:48] I bring that up because that is one component of the problem. [18:52] In addition, we have an organized effort targeting our border, the NGOs, the nonprofits in the deep pockets, [19:00] the United Nations, charitable organizations, and a long list of over 250 organizations that the Center for Immigration Studies put out [19:09] that lays out a complex web of organizations that were moving people into our country, [19:15] knowing that they're dangerous, knowing that they're criminal, [19:19] associated with taxpayer dollars flowing through the United Nations [19:22] and donor dollars flowing through organizations, including ostensibly religious ones, [19:27] putting these dangerous individuals on the street. [19:30] That resulted in fentanyl in our communities. [19:32] That resulted in the death of Jocelyn Nungere, [19:34] of hundreds, thousands even, as the director testified, [19:39] 100,000 people dying from these narcotics every year. [19:42] All of this in an organized effort, a complete effort by the radical left to use taxpayer dollars [19:51] and these dollars to put people on our streets. [19:54] In addition, the extent to which we've seen now with the Southern Poverty Law Center and their hate map [20:01] targeting, for example, the Family Research Council, [20:06] where we had a shooting right here in D.C. over a decade ago, [20:08] putting Charlie Kirk, putting a target on TPUSA, Antifa, [20:15] other radical organizations that are very specifically organized [20:19] and targeting conservatives and ordinary Americans. [20:23] Well, how about the organized effort to infiltrate our schools [20:26] and advance a transgender agenda, and advance a radical agenda, [20:31] perhaps one that we will see exposed further [20:35] in the individual that actually shot Charlie Kirk? [20:38] So here's my question. [20:41] Will you as the director, and are you as the director, [20:44] pursuing all legal channels to follow the truth wherever it may lead on this organized effort, [20:50] one, and two, do you agree that Congress should take all action necessary [20:55] to expose this web of dollars that are flowing to undermine our way of life? [21:01] I've got another minute in my time that I'd like to hear from you on this topic broadly. [21:05] I'll keep it short. [21:07] Investigatively speaking, we are doing the following. [21:09] We are following the money. [21:10] We are following the money in every organization and every person [21:13] that is violating the federal code, [21:16] and it doesn't matter what your background or ideology is. [21:19] We are following the money. [21:20] We are using legal process to follow that money, [21:22] issuing subpoenas to follow that money, [21:24] using grand juries to follow that money, [21:26] and when we have results to recommend for prosecution to the Department of Justice, [21:30] we will do that, and we will continue to publicize documents through Congress, [21:33] yes, when we make these findings. [21:36] Mr. Chairman, I'd like any of us can send an insult to record, [21:38] outsourcing justice by the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund that I alluded to before. [21:43] I would ask unanimous consent to add a 2024 list provided by the Center for Immigration Studies [21:47] on these United Nations and other affiliated groups that are responsible, [21:51] over 250 of them, for moving individuals into our country in a coordinated effort. [21:54] I would like unanimous consent to insert a letter that I sent that currently has 33 members of the United States House of Representatives [22:02] have signed on it calling for a special select committee to pursue the organized effort from the radical left [22:07] to target our way of life and undermine our security by putting criminals on the street [22:11] and having our borders being wide open and putting us in danger. [22:14] And with that, I would yield back. [22:18] Without objection. [22:19] Gentleman yields back. [22:20] Mr. Chairman, I have a couple of unanimous consent requests. [22:25] One is a letter from Senator Tom Cotton, dated last year, urging the U.S. to, quote, [22:33] ensure that data from U.S. companies is not harvested by the Chinese Communist Party [22:40] through the purchase of Xi'an software and technology. [22:44] Objection. [22:45] And also a statement by Marco Rubio, then Senator Marco Rubio, [22:56] which warned our U.K. allies about, quote, [23:01] Xi'an's deep ties to the People's Republic of China. [23:05] Without objection. [23:06] Also, a crime is a, the record crime is down in 2025. [23:16] Trump doesn't deserve credit, which demonstrates that the crime rates have been decreasing since 2023, [23:23] which was published by the Vera Institute. [23:26] Also, a unanimous consent request to enter into the record, [23:35] a NPR report from July of 2024. [23:42] GOP vows to make America safe again. [23:45] Statistics contradict their growing crime claims. [23:48] Without objection. [23:49] Also, a report out of the American Presidency Project, [23:55] dated January 17, 2025, record low crime during the Biden-Harris administration. [24:04] Without objection. [24:04] Also, Joe Biden is correct that violent crime is near a 50-year low, [24:10] which was a PolitiFact publication of May 2024. [24:15] And last but not least, a FBI releases 2024 reported crimes in the nation statistics. [24:25] These are FBI statistics published on August 5th, 2025, [24:32] which details decreases in murder, rape, aggregated assault, and robbery in 2024. [24:39] Without objection. [24:42] Gentlemen, gentlemen from Kentucky is recognized for unanimous consent. [24:45] Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to submit two sets of documents. [24:49] The first is a series of emails from the victims of Jeffrey Epstein. [24:53] They are making FOIA requests to get their own FBI files and not having any success. [24:58] So I want to bring attention to that by submitting that to the record. [25:02] The second document that I want to submit to the record, for the record, [25:08] I know we don't usually read these. [25:11] This one's not readable. [25:13] It's completely redacted for the most part, the first 50 pages. [25:19] This is actually the search warrant that was served on James O'Keefe [25:22] for a diary that he had already given to the government two months before. [25:28] And as it turns out, there were no indictments here, [25:30] yet he still doesn't know why he was raided, [25:34] and I think he deserves to know. [25:36] Subjection. [25:37] Thank you. [25:38] The chair now recognizes the gentleman from California. [25:41] Director, the first time you saw Donald Trump's name was in the Epstein files. [25:46] Did you close the files or keep reading? [25:51] I have reviewed not the entirety of the files. [25:54] So you haven't reviewed all of the Epstein files? [25:57] Personally, no. [25:59] You're the director of the FBI. [26:00] This is the largest sex trafficking case the FBI has ever been a part of. [26:04] Buck stops at the top, [26:06] and your testimony today is you have not reviewed all of the files. [26:09] What I've been doing is busy providing the safest country this country has seen [26:13] in modern U.S. history in historic speed [26:15] because the men and women of the FBI are given the resources [26:18] to reduce the homicide rates, to reduce the drug trafficking rate, [26:21] to reduce the amount of children that are being trafficked, [26:24] and the number of pedophiles that we have arrested is record high. [26:25] It sounds like those children being trafficked [26:26] would appreciate the director reviewing the files. [26:28] You said you don't know the number of times Trump's name appears in the files, [26:32] so it could at least be 1,000 times. [26:34] Is that right? [26:36] The number is a total misleading factor. [26:39] We have not released anyone's name in the Epstein files that has not been credible. [26:45] Director, could it at least be 1,000 times? [26:47] We have released every piece of legally permissible information. [26:50] You can characterize the numbers however you want it. [26:52] You claim in my time, director. [26:54] It sounds like if you don't know the number, [26:56] it could at least be 1,000 times. [26:58] It's not. [26:59] It's not. [26:59] Is it at least 500 times? [27:00] No. [27:01] Is it at least 100 times? [27:02] No. [27:02] Then what's the number? [27:03] I don't know the number, but it's not that. [27:05] Do you think it might be your job to know the number? [27:08] My job is to provide for the safety and security of this country. [27:11] My job is not to engage in political innuendo [27:13] so you can go out to the sticks and get your 20-second hit in your fundraising article. [27:18] So reclaiming my time, director. [27:19] Keep going, reclaiming your time, [27:20] because the people of California are being underserved by your representation. [27:24] If the president is not implicated, [27:25] why not release everything that involves... [27:27] We have released everything, the president and anyone else's side, [27:31] that is credible and lawfully be able to be released. [27:34] Your fixation on this matter and baseless accusations that I'm hiding child pedophiles [27:39] is disgusting. [27:41] Anyone that says that needs to look at the stats alone. [27:43] And go back to the state of California, [27:45] who's receiving the biggest surge in FBI resources through my redeployment [27:49] because the cities of Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco need it. [27:52] Reclaiming my time, director. [27:53] Remembering your oath to tell the truth, [27:55] did you ever tell Donald Trump his name is in the files? [27:57] I have never spoken to President Trump about the Epstein files. [28:03] Did you ever tell the attorney general that Donald Trump's name is in the Epstein files? [28:08] The attorney general and I have had numerous discussions about [28:10] the entirety of the Epstein files and the reviews conducted by our team. [28:13] Did you tell the attorney general that Donald Trump's name is in the Epstein files? [28:16] And we have released where President Trump's name is in the Epstein files. [28:18] It's a simple question. [28:19] Did you tell the attorney general that the president's name is in the Epstein files? [28:23] During many conversations that the attorney general and I have had [28:26] on the matter of epstein we have reviewed the question is simple who can tell the attorney [28:34] general that donald trump's name is in the epstein files yes or no why don't you try spelling it out [28:38] yes or no direct the alphabet yes or no no abc director it sounds like you don't want to tell us [28:45] did you tell the attorney general that donald trump's name was in the epstein files why don't [28:48] you try serving your constituency by focusing on reducing violent crime in this country and the [28:54] number of pedophiles that are legally covered in sanctuary cities in california i'll work with you [29:00] on that regular order mr chairman on that director i belong to the gentleman from california did you [29:05] tell the attorney general that donald trump's name is in the epstein files question has been asked and [29:09] answered you've not answered it and we will take your evasiveness as a consciousness of guilt director [29:15] did donald trump ever say to you just find and release the entire truth don't worry if i'm in [29:20] it the instructions from the administration were to release all credible information and [29:25] we have done that did donald trump ever provide information about jeffrey epstein as an informant [29:31] donald trump has not been and i can only speak for the fbi an informant of the fbi [29:35] so director you've played this cute shell game where you say you can't release everything because the court [29:40] has said that it legally is not allowed to be released but the court calls [29:45] judge richard berman said that when you went to the court quote information contained in the epstein [29:52] grand jury transcripts pales pales in comparison to epstein investigation information and materials [29:59] in the hands of the department of justice so let's move on director you wrote a book called government [30:06] gangsters you identified 20 individuals in that book you put me on that list at the top of the list [30:12] thank you my children find it flattering 20 of those individuals have been investigated or have [30:18] had adverse actions director considering that you have identified these people as quote government [30:23] gangsters will you recuse yourself from making any investigation decisions about these individuals [30:29] anyone that has been terminated the fbi has been done so no the question failed to meet the muster [30:33] of their constitutional obligation i will work on the audio visual capabilities i'm going to borrow your [30:38] terminology and call bullshit on your entire career in congress it has been a disgrace to the [30:43] american people you can reclaim your time all you want mr chairman you're going to allow a witness [30:48] to speak this way mr chairman would you accuse yourself the gentleman has no time mr chairman would [30:54] you admonish the witness not to insult members gentleman has no time with the mr chairman just maybe [30:58] will remember point of order um could the gentleman be extended an additional 20 seconds to complete [31:04] his thoughts since the witness decided to interrupt him continuously and the witness will be [31:08] able to respond if he wants we'll make sure thank you my question is will you director recuse yourself [31:13] yes or no from investigating or making decisions about the 60 individuals including myself that you [31:20] identified as government gangsters yes or no time of the gentleman has expired the witness may respond if [31:25] he would like and the answer was no as i heard correct okay the gentleman from wisconsin the gentleman yields [31:32] back the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized for five minutes thank you chairman uh thank you director [31:37] patel for being here today um i wanted to talk a little bit about the assassination of charlie kirk and [31:44] the fbi's subsequent investigation i know it's really sensitive and uh you know you can make the call as to [31:51] whether or not obviously it's it's something that you can respond to but uh i think it's still fresh on [31:57] many people's minds i want to congratulate you and utah law enforcement for the work you did in uh and [32:05] identifying the suspect and and apprehending him uh according to public reports and i think this is [32:12] what maybe it's um i i still have questions about and maybe the public does according to public reports [32:19] the alleged shooter arrives on on the utah valley university campus nearly four hours before the [32:25] shooting it was that your understanding is that kind of i'll let the public reports reflect themselves [32:32] i don't have the exact timeline okay so we don't have any idea kind of his prep or how he set up or [32:38] how he utilized that time when he first showed up on campus all of those are being currently [32:42] investigated through our cell phone analysis and through our witness interviews and the state of [32:46] utah has now announced charges seeking the death penalty against his suspects so we're a little limited [32:51] in what we can continue sure i understand and that suspect like you referred to is then captured on [32:57] security footage jumping off the roof of the alleged shooting location the losey center do we have any [33:04] idea how the suspect got up on the roof in the first place i i think for members of congress especially [33:11] after butler and pennsylvania it's just unimaginable that there could be some type of security breakdown [33:19] prior to an event of that size where somebody could access a rooftop so not commenting on the case but [33:26] having gone to the crime scene and walked the steps that we believe were taken the roof was actually [33:32] readily accessible through an exterior stairwell so anyone could have gotten on it okay okay um the [33:42] suspect flees on foot to kind of this wooded area where he drops the rifle wraps it in a towel and then [33:49] proceeds to his staged vehicle and basically drives home so do we have any idea what the towel was about was it [33:58] used later to identify a place where the firearm was left or do we sorry uh what we can tell you is [34:04] the towel there was a screwdriver found on the rooftop which dna was collected off of and the towel was [34:10] found wrapped around the firearm in question in a wooded area next to the campus all have been [34:16] processed for dna and then according to the suspect's roommate there were allegedly messages on instant [34:25] messaging platforms specifically discord suggesting the towel may have been used to identify that [34:31] weapons location so the public reports have suggested that the shooter acted alone do we still believe that [34:38] that's true do we have any idea as to whether or not those discord messages led us to believe that the [34:46] shooter may have had help in any way or assistance i can only speak to the fbi's investigation and our [34:52] investigation is ongoing and we are interviewing any of those individuals involved in that chat and [34:58] other individuals in the area very good and if so my suggestion if there are accomplices i'm sure this [35:07] is something that the fbi is going to continue to investigate fully and thoroughly into the future [35:14] yes sir the reason i ask that is because i don't know that that was necessarily the case [35:18] uh with butler pennsylvania so thank you so much for your persistence kind of in this matter there's [35:25] still a lot of uh public questions that need to be asked uh let me shift uh to another topic very [35:32] quickly on july 31st 2025 the doj and the cia declassified the annex to special counsel john durham's [35:40] 2023 report on operation crossfire hurricane um the 29 page durham annex contains previously classified [35:48] information about among other things the investigative referral of the clinton campaign plan uh why would [35:55] somebody place documents in a burn bag related to this case that case is very much ongoing so i can't [36:03] comment on the stylization of the evidence we're collecting can you comment at all on the durham annex [36:09] as i described it the durham annex which has been publicly released thanks to the fbi's commitment to [36:16] transparency is one of the documents that's being utilized and in general terms speaking [36:20] for a burn bag sir a burn bag is what you use to put classified documents into generally because [36:27] that is literally how you destroy them so it appears that efforts were made by the clinton campaign [36:33] to reach out to the fbi agents or the clinton sympathizers in the intelligence community in order [36:39] to lead more credibility to the clinton campaign plan do you think that's an accurate characterization [36:46] again i'm not going to characterize that material because it's part of an ongoing investigation thanks [36:52] for being here today i yield back gentleman yields back uh gentleman from california is recognized thank [36:59] you director patel for being here today the fbi searched jeffrey epstein's manhattan residence correct [37:06] i believe that happened in 2018 i think there's two locations sir it's 2019 and in that residence the [37:13] fbi found a safe correct i don't have the catalog of evidence in front of me in that residence the [37:20] fbi found a safe correct i'll accept your representation and in that safe the fbi found [37:27] topless and lewd photographs of girls correct again sir i'll accept your representation i don't know [37:34] thank you it was um all over the media the times the new york times article that says jeffrey epstein is [37:41] indicted on sex charges as discovery of nude photos is disclosed dated july 8 2019 and the times reports [37:48] a trover loot photographs of girls was discovered in a safe inside financier jeffrey epstein's manhattan [37:54] mansion author michael wolf has conducted numerous interviews of jeffrey epstein i'm going to play for [38:00] you a video clip of what michael wolf said epstein told him was in the safe and what he showed the author [38:08] was in this safe so let's please play that clip now elected um i and i was sitting talking to epstein [38:16] and he said wait a minute i gotta show you something um and then he went into his safe and he came out [38:22] with with um with with photographs they were they were polaroids i i think and um and he kind of [38:30] kind of they were he kind of spread them out like playing cards and it was trump i mean i think there [38:37] were a dozen of them and and it was trump with girls of an uncertain age at epstein's palm beach house [38:47] where all of the things that he would ultimately be accused of took place and i remember very vividly [38:54] three of them there are two in which trump is uh the girls topless girls are sitting on trump's lap and [39:03] then a third in which he has a a stain on the front of his pants and the girls are kind of [39:11] kind of pointing at it sort of bent over laughing so director patel i'm going to ask you a very broad [39:19] and general question as you know donald trump and jeffrey epstein were friends there are of course [39:24] photos showing donald trump together with epstein correct i don't have the entirety of the photographs [39:31] but i think they've been photographed in public together are there any photos showing donald trump [39:37] with girls of an uncertain age no how do you know that because that information would have been brought [39:44] to light by multiple administrations and fbi investigators over the course of the last 20 [39:48] years well you know what that's just not true because no one knew about the creepy birthday message [39:52] that donald trump wrote to jeffrey epstein until the wall street journal disclosed it and then all of a [39:57] sudden the epstein estate provides it to congress certainly you weren't there at the search you don't [40:04] know what epstein may or may not have done with those photographs even prior to the search maybe [40:10] someone has it maybe the epstein estate has it you raise a great point so so i'm going to ask you have [40:15] you um asked to talk to michael wolf you raise a great point i haven't personally asked to talk to [40:21] michael wolf but the fbi i'll get back to you if the fbi is so so michael has ever about a hundred hours [40:27] of testimony of jeffrey epstein would wouldn't it be good for the fbi to interview michael wolf i'm [40:32] not saying they haven't i just don't know has fbi subpoenaed the tapes that michael wolf has [40:37] conducted of jeffrey epstein i don't know all right so if you could provide us an answer that would be [40:42] terrific well let me ask you this question then um have you looked at all the photos and epstein files [40:51] i have looked at all the information that the investigators who investigated this case [40:57] have provided to run out credible leads and in the epstein file was there that creepy birthday [41:02] message that donald trump had written to epstein no that's what i was trying to tell you you raise [41:05] a great point the estate of jeffrey epstein has a voluminous amount of information that they have [41:10] not released before okay so that's great so um wouldn't it be great if fbi subpoenaed the state [41:16] of jeffrey for all that information the estate is under no obligation to provide that material even [41:21] pursuant to a subpoena that's a great point yeah that's just that's just false okay it just follows [41:26] you're the freaking fbi you can subpoena the information from the state and you better do [41:30] that that's literally not how it works i'm going to move on now and talk about epstein's client list [41:37] you confirmed that exists attorney general pam body confirmed earlier this year that exists i just [41:42] want to ask you a simple question is prince andrew on epstein's client list the material related to [41:48] prince andrew has been made public is prince andrew on the client list we have released the index of [41:53] names that we're in jeffrey epstein is donald trump on epstein's client list the index has been released [41:59] and the index will speak first so i'm just gonna say america there's a huge red flag the fbi director [42:04] could not answer gentlemen whether donald trump was on epstein's time has expired i do not recognize [42:10] as the gentleman from virginia thank you mr chairman i want to thank the director for being here and for [42:15] his work over the last several months removing the taint of partisanship that has infected the [42:21] intelligence community over the past several years under the last administration under the last [42:26] several directors standing up for law enforcement standing up for the brave men and women who work [42:30] in your agency but to set the record straight you know we have to correct the record and and the record [42:38] early days of the first trump administration saw a dramatic spike in news stories that contain [42:43] sensitive and sometimes classified details about the fbi's bogus russia probe about a leak a day [42:49] it's unacceptable that senior fbi officials coordinated to leak classified information [42:54] to try and harm president trump um documents produced to the committee in august of this year [43:00] reveal that the fbi interviewed a former uh intelligence committee staffer who gave details [43:06] on a systematic process through which leaks of classified information were affected by then chairman [43:11] now senator adam schiff were these findings escalated within the bureau's chain of command and if so [43:16] what level did you receive this information that that entire matter is currently under investigation [43:32] by the people of the fbi that handle leaks of classified information all right it's good to know [43:37] that there is an ongoing investigation um can you tell me whether these leaks uh to the media [43:46] compromise any ongoing fbi investigations during the trump russia probe i can tell you generally [43:52] speaking the leaks of classified information are detrimental to any work the fbi is doing now [43:58] former director james comey testified before the senate judiciary committee that he had never been [44:02] an anonymous source nor authorized anyone to be an anonymous source and news reports about matters [44:07] relating to the trump investigation or the clinton investigation was comey's testimony true in reference [44:13] to director comey um i'm very limited in what i can say because of what the current status of those [44:20] matters are with the fbi and the department of justice when i am able to make those public i will [44:25] can you tell me if there's an ongoing investigation there again without identifying any individuals [44:31] related to the information you're generally speaking about there is an ongoing matter that has [44:35] been under review by the department the fbi for some time because we know that the documents that [44:42] we received last month revealed that former director comey used columbia university law professor as a [44:47] conduit to leak stories to the media that contained classified information let me move on to the way [44:52] that the fisa process was weaponized by past directors prior to your confirmation you raised concerns about [44:59] government misuse of fisa including section 702 stating that fisa was in need of major major reform [45:06] specifically you highlighted that the fisc report that the fbi had conducted 278 000 improper searches [45:13] of the fisa database do you remain concerned about governmental abuse of fisa in section 702 i'm [45:19] always concerned but what we've done since i became fbi director is implement new um audit systems we [45:24] are nearing a hundred percent review of the 702 query system that you are specifically referring to [45:29] and we've also eliminated anyone that has ever touched that database that has in any way made a mistake [45:34] whether intentional or not and we have also identified a system in which those going forward [45:41] who misuse the 702 system they don't get two strikes they get one and you're done okay i'm [45:47] glad you mentioned you're continuing to audit because as you know in may the new york times [45:51] reported you closed the fbi's office of internal auditing uh can you explain why you decided to close [45:57] this office yeah because under the new restructuring the fbi to save resources there were two different [46:03] places doing the exact same thing we have a specific division dedicated to audits i didn't need [46:08] another audit system doing the audits again and so we folded some of those folks with their expertise [46:13] into our specific division and then took the rest of those folks and are moving them out across the [46:17] country under previous fbi leadership fbi agents were found to have lied to the fisc there have been [46:23] hundreds of thousands of violations of querying standards in light of past violations what action [46:28] is the fbi taking to ensure that similar abuses do not occur in the future exactly what i've outlined [46:33] you cannot have access to the 702 query system if you improperly query that system at all at any time [46:41] in your career okay at a senate hearing two years ago your predecessor director ray testified fbi had [46:47] previously purchased us phone geolocation data for a specific national security pilot project and [46:52] further stated that the project had not been active for some time and that the fbi relies on court [46:57] authorized process to obtain location data from companies does the fbi purchase location data or any other [47:03] data of americans from data brokers i don't believe so but i'll get back to you thank you that'd be [47:09] important i appreciate that i yield back gentleman yields back generally from washington's recognize [47:13] thank you mr chairman mr patel before you joined the fbi you had very strong opinions about what the fbi [47:20] was hiding regarding jeffrey epstein in a september 2023 interview with glenn beck you said the black [47:26] book is under the quote direct control of the director of the fbi in december 2023 you said let [47:32] us know who the pedophiles are even for a short time after becoming fbi director in february of 2025 [47:39] you tweeted quote there will be no cover-ups no missing documents no stone left unturned in june you told [47:46] joe rogan quote we've reviewed all the information we're going to give you every single thing we have [47:52] and can but then suddenly in july everything changed you and attorney general pam bondy released [47:59] one video and said that there was nothing more to see your july memo says you uncovered more than 300 [48:08] gigabytes of data and physical evidence but that you had decided no further disclosure would be [48:15] appropriate or warranted that is a quote i think what happened mr patel is that suddenly [48:21] you discovered that donald trump's name was all over these files and you started a giant cover-up [48:28] so you are under oath mr patel you just testified to mr swalwell that you did not speak to the president [48:36] about the epstein files to your knowledge did attorney general pam bondy speak to the president about [48:44] what was in the epstein files i can't speak for attorney general pam bondy so to your knowledge you [48:50] don't have any information the question was do you have any knowledge do you have any knowledge i can't [48:56] you are refusing to answer the question so let me tell you that the wall street journal reported that [49:01] in may bondy told trump that he was in the epstein files and at the same meeting said that the doj did not [49:09] plan to release the files yesterday you testified to senator kennedy that there was quote no credible [49:16] information that epstein trafficked girls to anyone else and that you have quote continuously and [49:22] publicly asked the public to come forward with more information and we'll look into it today in [49:29] response to mr massey's question you appear to say that the survivors were not credible these are [49:38] survivors that's not at all what i said okay great i'm going to ask you this in a second but let me tell [49:43] you about the survivors and let's bring them up here into the room these are women who came to the [49:50] hill and testified that they were groomed and raped at the age of 14 and 16 years old and they called to [49:58] meet with the president and to meet with the fbi and to have people investigate their claims some of [50:04] them have never testified before if you are so interested in getting the public to submit any [50:09] information why have you not met with them you said you haven't met with them have you met with [50:14] them i'll give you one more chance my job as the fbi director is to is the answer yes or no whether or [50:22] not you met with these women who were sexually abused and raped any insinuation by you or any people on [50:30] your side that i am not manhunting child predators and sex traffickers just look at the stats and you talk [50:36] about cover-ups man mr chairman you talk about cover-ups and i will take as much time as where [50:41] were you during the obama and biden administrations when these so-called cover-ups were going on [50:47] why does anyone in those administrations talk to any of these purported witnesses i have some regular [50:52] order every single person to provide credible information time belongs to the gentlelady from [50:57] washington and i'm going to take another you accuse the witness of something he's allowed to respond [51:01] that's how it works listen he didn't even excuse me mr chairman you have always been fair [51:06] but this is not fair and you will get your this is my time and he said that the witnesses were not [51:13] credible seconds of time i'm going to get an additional minute of time because that's how [51:17] much time you won't get a minute you'll get some seconds what we think is is under five minutes you [51:22] don't get to demand how much time you get that's not how it works mr patel are the victims of the [51:30] jeffrey epstein horrific trafficking ring are they credible any person with information about [51:38] ongoing sexual trafficking i'm asking you if they're credible ma'am i'm commenting on the [51:43] evidence we have but we have routinely asked for people to come forward with more evidence and we [51:48] will look at it and the evidence that we have was the same evidence that the biden and obama justice [51:53] departments had they determined not me they determined that that information was not credible [51:59] he's not letting me even ask my questions you ask the questions he gives an answer you don't you may [52:03] not like what he says but that doesn't mean you get to interrupt my question mr chairman could we [52:07] restore the gentlelady 45 seconds so she can we'll give her additional 30 seconds which is what i said [52:12] i'm going to keep taking my time because you'll take the time that you get you are not answering [52:17] the question the question i have you just don't like these women are these women credible it's a yes or [52:24] no answer i have answered the question well what is he telling you i'm the only fbi director that has [52:29] welcomed new information in this case this administration is the only one that has welcomed [52:34] any new information in this case is there a yes or no present new credible information present new [52:40] information are the victims credible victims not i'll tell you what happened in the last trump [52:46] administration credible or not you can't even credibly came forward and you know what happened [52:50] president trump authorized the indictments of jeffrey epstein not biden not obama no one else [52:57] the entire thing a democratic hopes so i would like to ask the gentlelady's time has expired i [53:04] gave her the additional 45 seconds she requested the gentlelady yields back the gentleman from new [53:09] jersey is recognized for his five minutes with the women who were sexually abused and raped and [53:17] grooved at the ages of 14 and 16 years old are you going to cover up are you going to continue to [53:25] recognize the gentleman from new jersey for his powerful men including those that might be on this [53:30] committee i can yell to you mr chairman but i don't want to yell above this to testify to the gentleman from [53:36] new jersey i appreciate the gentlelady yielding back mr patel go ahead will you allow them to testify to you mr [53:44] patel mr patel thank you for being here i know it's been an interesting and difficult two days [53:52] and i wasn't going to talk about the epstein thing because there's a lot of other issues that affect [53:56] the fbi but i have to say a few words i just i've sat here i've listened to this i've watched it and you [54:02] know my democratic colleagues are so concerned now mr patel all of a sudden where were they last year [54:08] where were they the year before where were they the year before that where was the last president in [54:13] any of this well i know the only thing i see is a single letter from the ranking member that was [54:19] sent in 2019 that he didn't like the plea deal and some people signed on to that most of the truth [54:26] the real truth let's be honest let's be intellectually honest the real truth is we didn't hear from them [54:33] at all anybody of them hardly any of them ever mentioned it some of them didn't mention it all [54:39] until the beginning of this year earlier in the year it started not one democrat asked director [54:46] ray we all remember director ray was here not once not twice multiple times nobody asked director ray [54:54] about epstein before this committee nobody was that concerned where was the concern for the victims then [55:01] where was the moral righteousness then where was the outrage then where was the sense of duty then where [55:07] was the desire for accountability then where was the urgency for justice then most of all where the [55:15] hell was the integrity then you know what the truth is let's just say it man i like tell the truth time [55:22] the truth is is politically useful for them to try to do this now even though they didn't give a damn [55:29] about it in the past and you know what that's an insult to the victims and that's an insult to america [55:36] continue to do the work you're doing continue to uncover what needs to be uncovered one real quick [55:42] thing before i say anything to 9 11 we know that was mishandled by the past director and by the past fbi's [55:49] there are family members here there are family members who are concerned god almighty we want to [55:54] get to the truth of that i ask you please to meet with them to talk to them and to investigate this [56:01] with truth you know in the invited administration we went through a very dark and difficult period [56:07] of time the fbi trust was broken with the people catholics were this is the stuff we've been talking [56:13] about were labeled radical threats for praying in their churches with their rosaries parents at [56:18] school boards were called terrorists for standing up for their children hindu holy men in new jersey [56:24] we have a large the largest hindu temple in the world they were attacked they were put up against [56:29] the wall with guns to their heads so it isn't just a catholic or christian thing american jews were [56:35] targeted in colleges and universities and a lot of folks in the fbi in the past fbi not this one [56:41] didn't give a damn we can't go back to targeting religion we can't go back to silencing free speech [56:48] the biden administration did that so i got questions for you thought hopefully thoughtful questions [56:53] that you can answer for us in a thoughtful way how is this fbi now under your leadership how are we [57:00] storing trust for catholics for hindus for jews for parents for all the other for just american [57:07] people that were targeted by faiza because they had a different viewpoint how are we restoring that [57:13] trust in the fbi in multiple ways sir one and maybe most importantly is through transparency and [57:19] providing the american public with the material so they can see read it themselves as to [57:23] what the abuses were in the past whether it relates to the catholic memo or the hindu incident you [57:28] talked about at the largest temple in north america any institution of faith and any member of faith [57:34] will not be investigated by this fbi because they are men and women of faith ever period nor should [57:40] they nor should they i don't mean to interrupt you but my god of all the amendments to the con [57:45] freedom of speech freedom to believe in what you want to believe in i know you're standing up for [57:49] that continue i'm sorry no that's it sorry okay the richmond memo was driven by a reliance on sources [57:56] the southern poverty law center you know the words sound nice but the organization's not so nice and [58:02] we've seen the anti-defamation league distort data that counts as well as violence have you been able [58:08] to identify and eliminate these kinds of partisan sources we welcome all sources but we want objectivity and [58:15] neutrality and decency decency in the way we report all this have you been able to uncover any information [58:23] there how do we make sure our sources are good in the future we have reviewed the source processes that [58:29] infiltrate any any institutions of faith and they will no longer be going into institutions of faith [58:35] they will be directed towards criminal activity and protecting the homeland the two most important [58:40] missions the fbi has and that's what we're going to continue to do good and i'll say this there was [58:45] a lot of bull today a lot of you know what and i'm not going to say it because i respect the institution [58:50] so much going on around here continue to do the work of the people you are here for that reason the [58:57] administration is here for that reason it was weaponized and politicized the fbi in the past i hope [59:04] to god we never ever see that again one of the darkest parts of american history thank you mr i yield back [59:11] chairman of unanimous consent the gentleman from new york is recognized for uc i would like to [59:15] introduce a cnn article that explains how an alleged top leader of the ms13 gang was dismissed his case [59:25] was dismissed in brooklyn so that he could be deported back to el salvador even though he was charged [59:30] with murder objection mr chairman i have some unanimous consent the lady washington's recognized i ask [59:35] unanimous consent to enter into the record an article titled justice department told trump in may that [59:41] his name is among many in the epstein files objection uh i have another one um that is a july 2025 [59:49] article by the new york times entitled how a frantic scouring of the epstein files consumed the justice [59:56] department stating that doj and fbi employees reviewing the epstein files were instructed to [1:00:01] flag any mentions of trump and other celebrities objection and i have another unanimous consent [1:00:07] request to enter into the record an august 2025 article by the guardian entitled gillaine maxwell hinted [1:00:14] at epstein's ties to trump officials why wasn't she pressed for names stating that maxwell told deputy [1:00:20] u.s attorney todd blanche that some of the quote cast of characters around epstein are in trump's cabinet [1:00:27] without objection chair now recognizes generally from pennsylvania thank you mr chairman and thank you [1:00:32] mr patel for coming before us to testify today um i am concerned by your repeated claims that you're not [1:00:41] able to disclose anything further about the epstein investigation and files and that there's no evidence [1:00:46] of a broader conspiracy or other people who should be charged because the american people aren't [1:00:54] very buying that you've been transparent or that there's nothing further to be seen [1:00:58] um in your exchange with my colleague mr roy you reiterated something that i heard you say yesterday [1:01:03] in your senate testimony and that is under your direction the fbi will always follow the money is [1:01:09] that right the money did you say yes you said you'll follow the money that's great and just now you said [1:01:15] you welcome the opportunity to investigate new evidence so there has been significant recent reporting [1:01:22] just in the last couple weeks that after jeffrey epstein was arrested four major banks flagged more [1:01:29] than 1.5 billion dollars in suspicious transactions connected to him that suggested a massive conspiracy [1:01:38] related to his child sex trafficking activities director patel has the fbi reviewed the 1.5 billion in [1:01:45] suspicious bank transactions flagged to the government relating to epstein and his co-conspirators i know [1:01:51] the fbi has reviewed numerous sars i don't know the totality of that number okay do you can you [1:01:57] provide us with that number i'll get back to you okay and have you initiated any new investigation of [1:02:03] those bank transactions since say september 8th when the new reporting came out i'll check with the [1:02:09] treasury department because they're the lead on that okay so director patel how many individuals or [1:02:16] entities um has the fbi interviewed subpoenaed or compelled to testify can you give us those numbers [1:02:25] with respect to these bank transactions not off the top of my head i'll have to work with treasury okay [1:02:30] um we're concerned you see because you say you're going after child predators but we are obviously this [1:02:37] is how you follow the money is if you follow the bank transactions that um apparently enabled the [1:02:44] child sex trafficking would you agree it's one of the valuable investigative tools is to follow the [1:02:51] money okay um have jeffrey epstein's victims have asked us to ask you whether or not you've [1:02:58] investigated epstein's lawyers the lawyers who facilitated those payments have you um subpoenaed or [1:03:06] questioned any of those lawyers so in 2018 and 19 what i recollect is many if not every one of those [1:03:12] lawyers was part of the investigation but you weren't there at that time i wasn't there okay [1:03:17] so can you get us the names and the numbers of who was investigated then with respect to those [1:03:23] lawyers as long as i'm allowed to release it absolutely okay well if we provide you with [1:03:26] subpoenas i assume you can release it is that right we have a current subpoena and we're working [1:03:30] with congress to provide it okay um you've said that the acosta investigation had an original sin [1:03:40] what do you mean by that basically if you're looking at an actual pedophile ring what you should [1:03:49] not do is limit the time frame in which you are legally able to collect information so search [1:03:55] warrants that mr acosta utilized in 2006 and 7 leading to the 2008 plea agreement had a very specific [1:04:02] narrow window of years i think three or four years and so information pursuant to legal process wasn't [1:04:08] collected for 10 years or 15 years or 20 years it also in uh subpoenas were not sent out to hundreds [1:04:15] of witnesses at the time hundreds of victims at the time none of that was done none of these people [1:04:19] were put in grand juries and so the totality of information from the jump instead of being this big [1:04:26] was like this and that in my opinion is not how you run an investigation if you're trying to break a [1:04:30] sex trafficking ring so you're now in charge of the fbi why haven't you done that investigation [1:04:36] great question and here's the answer simply because i am not able to go back 20 years and collect [1:04:42] information that the courts had decided was already subject to search warrants they have said this was [1:04:49] in the investigation there's a non-prosecution agreement out of that plea and when the case was [1:04:55] reopened and this is where it comes into play when the case was reopened in 2018 and 2019 the search warrants [1:05:01] again were limited to the conduct of jeffrey epstein now whether that's right or wrong that's a [1:05:07] different discussion but i'm telling you that's the information well i think that is a different [1:05:11] discussion and i think the discussion we'd like to have today is why you aren't following the money [1:05:16] with respect to the broader um conspiracy that it has been reported in the new york times and elsewhere [1:05:25] and that if you really want to attack the issue if you wanted to attack the issue if you wanted to get [1:05:30] to the bottom of it if you wanted to disclose what really was involved in the epstein files the epstein [1:05:35] cover-up that you would be taking very different actions that you are today um i do want to seek [1:05:41] unanimous consent to enter into the record the new york times september 8th 2025 article how jp morgan [1:05:49] enabled the crimes of jeffrey epstein objection and also an article dated july 17th 2025 in the epstein case [1:05:58] follow the money objection okay thank you gentlelady yields back mr chairman gentleman from maryland [1:06:04] is recognized thank you much um pursuant to clause 2k6 of rule 11 i move the committee subpoena the [1:06:10] ceos of four banks jp morgan that's jamie diamond bank of new york melon robin vince bank of america brian [1:06:17] moinehan and deutsche bank christian sewing uh in order to get the suspicious transaction reports these [1:06:24] four banks have flagged to the government 1.5 billion dollars in suspicious transactions related [1:06:30] to the sex trafficking crimes and conspiracy of epstein maxwell and all of their collaborators and [1:06:36] as you know mr chairman we got the sars reports for hunter biden totaling around 20 million dollars [1:06:42] and so these 1.5 billion dollars in sars reports we should get especially since the director doesn't [1:06:48] seem to be forthcoming and i requested you know that we do this immediately i think the director's been very [1:06:53] forthcoming we will hold any motion to subpoena and abeyance until the conclusion of the hearing [1:06:57] the chair now recognizes the gentleman from texas thank you mr chairman thank you director patel for [1:07:02] being here it is quite clear it's quite clear that certain members of this committee you know they want [1:07:09] their 15 seconds on tv stamping and coming maybe it's for fundraising maybe they're struggling in their [1:07:14] district they need a little bump but they turn a committee into a clown show and that's what we're [1:07:21] seeing you're being unjustly attacked today i watched the senate hearings yesterday you were [1:07:27] attacked there we know there's an agenda there's always an agenda it's the same characters with the [1:07:34] same personalities the same objective and that is destroy the mega movement you're being attacked [1:07:41] director is because you're effective you highlighted what you've been doing in dc with the president [1:07:48] in reducing violent crime you're very effective another individual that was very effective [1:07:55] with meaningful debate and dialogue was charlie kirk and they killed him for it charlie kirk was a man [1:08:06] of faith first and foremost he loved his he loved his lord jesus he loved his family beautiful wife [1:08:12] beautiful children just a remarkable honorable man that was silenced with this assassin's bullet i would say [1:08:23] if charlie kirk lived in the biblical times he'd have been the 13th disciple he'd have been the 13th [1:08:33] disciple we have a new committee if you're not aware a new select committee we got on january 6th [1:08:41] i'm honored to be on that committee i'm looking forward to working with other members to expose truth [1:08:51] questioning federal agencies that were involved on january 6th like the fbi played a role but we don't [1:09:01] really know director to what extent we don't know the january 6 sham committee was not formed by [1:09:09] nancy pelosi to seek truth it was nothing about getting to the truth about january 6th their sole [1:09:18] mission was to damage donald j trump and end his political career and everybody knows it that's what [1:09:26] the purpose was you know what's nice so i kind of get to ask the question though how did that work out [1:09:32] for you donald j trump is back in the white house and america loves him i spent 30 years in law [1:09:40] enforcement old retired sheriff from a large county of the great state of texas i've seen director i've [1:09:48] seen more enthusiasm and support for law enforcement today because of what you and donald trump have done [1:09:55] over the last eight months to protect the american people the american people couldn't count on their [1:10:01] government to protect them crime is rampant and now we have a president and an administration [1:10:08] that puts the american people and their safety first it's interesting a few minutes ago i was you [1:10:14] know i a classmate reached out to me and sent me a i told him i said yes we got director patel in front [1:10:20] of our committee today and andy wanted me andy kane wanted me to tell you he said quote tell him we love [1:10:28] him tell him we love him and all the brave warriors exposing the deep state cash you're a great american [1:10:36] sir you're a great american your work as the director of the fbi is commendable it's commendable and i want [1:10:44] to thank you sir thank you for your service keep up the good fight brother don't let him tear you down [1:10:50] keep up that good fight you have it in you with that sir i yield back gentleman yield to me uh director [1:11:03] patel there were 26 uh the gentleman mentioned the select committee there were 26 confidential [1:11:07] human sources at the capitol on january 6 2021 four entered the capitol and thereby broke the law [1:11:13] do you know if those individuals were being paid by the ray fbi so we've provided 600 pages of [1:11:23] documents to this committee alone regarding january 6 that's 600 pages more than any of my predecessors [1:11:28] generally speaking confidential human sources are always paid by the fbi that's how it works i can't [1:11:34] speak to the specifics on each one and how much they made and we appreciate it we've reviewed some [1:11:38] of that material and you've given us a lot of material that we didn't get from director ray [1:11:41] that specific question i think is important to the american people um were people who were [1:11:47] confidential human sources of the fbi who broke the law one was one was recommended for prosecution [1:11:54] my understanding is by the information we've received from you were they actually paid by the very [1:12:00] taxpayers who may have got charged with the same same offense i think that's important for us to [1:12:04] understand i'll get back to you on that thank you chair now recognizes the gentleman from california [1:12:10] thank you chair uh welcome director patel um i'm going to focus a little bit on domestic terrorism we [1:12:17] have a graph here data up to 2021 but as you can tell um domestic terrorism is is on the rise [1:12:26] nation our citizens under threat we saw the assassination of charlie kirk uh two assassination [1:12:33] attempts on the president uh school shooting minnesota last month and closer to home just a couple [1:12:40] days ago huntington beach peaceful vigil for charlie clark infiltrated by neo-nazis who essentially [1:12:49] made the local individuals attending that event fear for their safety all of us know that a lot of these [1:12:57] domestic attacks are by lone wolves but yet they do leave clues social media or elsewhere director patel [1:13:08] you're it you're the thin blue line the fbi your job to protect our citizens back home from those that [1:13:17] would harm us you have to find the needle in the haystack takes a lot of work a lot of resources talking [1:13:25] to my local sheriff this morning who said they have they're concerned federal cuts federal cuts to local [1:13:33] grants that helped them do the job then of course let's not forget about other threats there are [1:13:42] coming before us like high-tech fraud local senior recently was talking to me about a text she had [1:13:50] gotten a demand by the irs to send a payment immediately or the irs agents were on their way to [1:13:57] arrest this individual pretty gutsy stuff by folks probably from europe north korea russia china people [1:14:07] okay going after those precious savings our senior citizens rely on yet the president's proposing a [1:14:16] budget cut of 500 million dollars or more to your organization the fbi you've said that that'll [1:14:25] essentially equate to about 1300 less jobs at the fbi so i'm going to ask you essentially what is it that [1:14:36] we can do to help you do your job a little concerned friday night lights one of the events i love to do [1:14:43] on friday nights go to the local high school football game sit there at the stadium and you always say what [1:14:50] if what if you're the thin blue line can you do your job cutting 500 million dollars from your budget [1:15:01] thank you sir i think we we are doing our job and the distinction is with the budget that we have [1:15:08] we are flexing more resources to the field california is receiving the largest fbi plus up of any state [1:15:16] in the union due to that plus they're not getting a reduction no state is getting a reduction every [1:15:20] state is getting a plus up and so i'm utilizing the money that we have to first plus it up and the empty [1:15:26] vacancies that we have those haven't been filled in years not my under my leadership here's here's my [1:15:32] concern you're going to do well you're doing more with less is what you're saying yet we're about to [1:15:40] vote on a budget that has 88 million dollars more to protect members of congress the executive branch [1:15:49] and the supreme court i'm there's a contradiction here back on main street we're saying you can do [1:15:56] more with less you can protect them with less money yet here in washington we're saying we need more [1:16:02] money to protect members of congress it's a little contradiction here or maybe sir you ought to talk [1:16:08] to leadership about coming in with your management style to protect the supreme court congress and [1:16:15] the administration otherwise it's essentially a hypocritical situation we need more protection [1:16:22] yet folks on main street can do with less my concern is folks on main street where that's we also [1:16:29] we're um i think we received uh over 300 million in the big beautiful bill and we're also receiving [1:16:35] pots of money from our inner agency so this sort of 500 cut isn't um entirely accurate you're still [1:16:43] getting cut 200 million plus you're still moving your agents to do ice work so you are leaving a lot of [1:16:50] bases uncovered and i'm not going to be argumentative with you director patel i'm just saying if that thin [1:16:59] blue line does not hold people on main street will pay the price i agree with you sir and i just look [1:17:05] forward to working with you because i am very concerned that these kinds of budget cuts are [1:17:11] short-sighted especially my local sheriff calls me and says we need more support and we're looking [1:17:16] at budget cuts i'll work with you sir thank you mr chair i yield time mr chairman i have another unanimous [1:17:22] consent request gentleman yields back the gentleman from new york's recognized unanimous consent [1:17:25] uh i seek to introduce a december 2024 uh oig report from the department of justice which confirms [1:17:34] the conclusion of the bill barr justice department that the so-called whistleblower a disgruntled former [1:17:40] employee of the intelligence committee was not a credible witness and there were no further actions [1:17:46] taken uh without objection mr chair i'd like to submit some items for the record you bet gentleman from [1:17:52] california first one trump's deportation diverts fbi agents off child predator cases second one fbi [1:17:59] director backtracks on administration's proposed budget cuts and number three trump administration [1:18:05] says 70 percent of ice detainees do not have criminal convictions without objection gentleman from texas [1:18:11] to recognize thank you director earlier this year the committee learned of new documents tied to the [1:18:17] crossfire hurricane investigation and the russia collusion hoax against president trump your efforts [1:18:24] and declassifying key documents tied to this investigation allowed the committee to acquire [1:18:29] thousands of pages that it did not have previously did any of your predecessors make any effort to [1:18:35] declassify these documents not to the extent we have did any of your predecessors share or leak any [1:18:42] details that were classified at the time there are ongoing leak investigations um across the board um at [1:18:52] the bureau related to this i believe one of those is mr comey and i thank you for continuing that [1:18:57] investigation among the declassified documents are the durham report annex the crossfire binder [1:19:04] and the nelly or criminal referral could you summarize for those watching that what we know about [1:19:10] the russia collusion hoax so far well sir i think the record will speak that um the russia collusion [1:19:18] matter was perpetrated by a political party to go overseas and obtain information from a foreign [1:19:26] intelligence asset only to have that information which was demonstrably false turned over to the fbi [1:19:31] who walked into a federal fisa secret court and asked for a secret surveillance court order and lied to [1:19:37] the federal court and we know that because someone was convicted of it and uh only to surveil the [1:19:42] political opponent so that is a massive scandal we helped expose it and in terms of the pages of [1:19:47] productions i provided 1400 pages of production related to crossfire hurricane and my predecessors [1:19:53] have provided zero i appreciate that and i appreciate your courage and commitment to declassifying [1:19:59] these important documents for our review and hope that you'll continue with this commitment can we [1:20:02] expect to see more declassification efforts regarding the crossfire hurricane and russia collusion [1:20:07] hoax yes thank you i yield the remaining balance of my time to chairman jordan oh i thank the [1:20:13] gentleman for uh yielding and director that's when it all started right the whole russia that that's when [1:20:19] it all began and then it was muller then it was impeachment then it was jack smith and fonnie [1:20:25] willis and alvin bragg and you name it but it all started then and that's why i think the gentleman from [1:20:29] texas wants to make sure we get all the information there and i want to go back to when it was changed [1:20:34] we talked about this earlier i just want to read to you what the cia officer said to the house [1:20:43] permanent select committee on intelligence quote bernan refused to remove the dossier when confronted [1:20:49] with the dossier's main flaws he responded yes but doesn't it ring true so that's what he initially [1:20:56] said and then when he was talking to this committee he said the cia was very much opposed to having any [1:21:03] reference or inclusion of the steel dossier in the intelligence community assessment so on one hand [1:21:09] you got a witness who was there who said he refused to remove it even though he knew it was garbage and [1:21:14] then he's on the other hand telling the committee no no no we didn't want anything to do with it it [1:21:18] shouldn't have been a part of the intelligence community assessment which we know it was you know [1:21:22] it was you found that those are two entirely different stories i think mr brennan has some explaining to [1:21:29] do frankly what happened there and i think you said earlier that this whole thing and i think you [1:21:35] said to mr goodin this whole thing is being looked at as part of this grand conspiracy to undermine the [1:21:40] president whether it's comey brennan clapper former head of the intelligence committee now senator from [1:21:45] whoever it is that's all being looked at is that accurate yes sir well we appreciate that and part of [1:21:51] what's also being looked at and i think the gentleman from wisconsin brought this up earlier what is a burn [1:21:57] bag for by the way uh generally speaking the intelligence community obviously utilizes and [1:22:02] possesses classified documents but drafts of those classified documents and even ultimate finished [1:22:07] products of those classified documents have to be recorded and or discarded and if they are discarded [1:22:13] the only way we do that the hard copies is we literally put them in burn bags that are identified [1:22:19] specifically for that purpose and there is in very exact courier system in which those burn bags are [1:22:25] obtained and the material inside is destroyed so it's to get rid of the material right yes sir and [1:22:32] it looks like the annex that mr durham and his investigation had was put into a burn bag by your [1:22:39] predecessor i assume to be destroyed is that accurate without getting into the stylization of [1:22:46] the evidence anything that's put in a burn bag is for purposes of destruction do you find that [1:22:51] interesting that the durham annex was placed in a burn bag that you would discover that when you took over [1:22:55] as the head of the fbi we found a lot of information in a lot of burn bags well we appreciate uh appreciate [1:23:02] you finding that we'd like to know a little bit more about that and we look forward to that information [1:23:06] coming forward and i appreciate the gentleman yielding with that we now recognize the gentleman [1:23:10] from colorado thank you thank you mr chairman for holding his hearing thank you director patel for [1:23:17] being here today i have a couple of questions regarding a terrible shooting that occurred in [1:23:24] colorado state as you may know that i represent you've testified previously about i think what you [1:23:30] would describe as your efforts to provide more information regarding the investigation with respect [1:23:35] to the horrific assassination of mr kirk and so in that same vein i'm hoping you can provide this [1:23:41] committee and my constituents in colorado with some clarity absolutely i think as my colleagues know in [1:23:47] evergreen colorado jefferson county a county that i proudly represent at evergreen high school [1:23:52] a shooter ultimately injured two students were praying for their swift recovery there's an article [1:23:58] here from carla public radio the title is quote fbi was already investigating an account that may have [1:24:03] been linked to the evergreen shooter you're familiar with the circumstances generally director regarding [1:24:09] this terrible of course tragedy yes so my understanding from the public reporting is that an [1:24:15] organization reported to the fbi in july of this year regarding uh just reading here from the article [1:24:22] that the fbi opened an assessment into a social media account user whose identity was unknown and who [1:24:27] was discussing the planning of a mass shooting with threats non-specific in nature this is the fbi's [1:24:30] statement to the press and that the fbi continued to work this assessment investigation to identify [1:24:35] the name and location of the user up until september 10th 2025 which was the day of the tragedy can you [1:24:41] provide us some clarity on what were the impediments to finding you know the account user and maybe [1:24:48] describe in greater detail the fbi's work in that regard generally speaking yes because i know even [1:24:53] though the shooter's deceased the investigation is we're not done and so the impediments to finding [1:25:01] these individuals and you highlight a great point we had two huge tragedies in the span of days in this [1:25:07] country um the school shooting in evergreen colorado being one of them um and proactively going out onto [1:25:15] these social media platforms which are so large is our biggest impediment and we need to rely on the [1:25:21] service providers there's actual legislation i can't remember the name of it that's up for renewal [1:25:26] which will and i think at the end of the month which gives service providers the ability to report that [1:25:31] information in from their end without liability we need that to continue because while the fbi has so [1:25:37] many people in the police are great at doing it there's just too many platforms to cover down on [1:25:42] well i i appreciate that uh director patel and i think we're certainly i'm interested to continue [1:25:47] in this conversation because i think the reporting suggests uh that this that there's a pattern and [1:25:52] that ultimately you know we want to make sure that law enforcement is able to prevent this kind [1:25:57] of tragedy from happening in the future i have a question it's not meant as a gotcha question so it [1:26:02] just frame it there uh but it is regards in regards to some reporting around a periodic transaction [1:26:09] report that you had filed earlier a periodic transaction report that you had filed earlier [1:26:13] this year so this is in july pursuant to the ethical obligations as a senior executive official [1:26:18] uh until you remember filing that in july yes so in that report as best as i can surmise you [1:26:26] disclosed that you divested uh you know hundred thousand dollars or more in a variety of different [1:26:32] stocks which i presume was pursuant to the ethics agreement that you negotiated with the department [1:26:36] of justice in that same report there's a disclosure regarding purchases of two different uh well rather [1:26:43] two different transactions so between 15 to 50 000 in a national coffee house chain and between 50 [1:26:50] to 100 000 in a semiconductor company on may 9th and may 12th are those transactions that you're doing [1:26:56] personally are these through a stock broker or are these transactions that you're handling yourself [1:27:02] so how they happen is i submit proposals under doj guidance to say hey we i would like to trade this [1:27:10] or that and they run their review and the fbi runs a review and then they come back and say yes or [1:27:14] no and then i make the transaction is there a reason that you decided to make the purchases into those two [1:27:21] companies uh generally speaking i before i got this job i was um you know trading stocks but not a [1:27:29] lot like most people and i just follow certain industries you know and um i thought they would [1:27:34] be a good investment so my the reason why i ask right because you had divested in other companies [1:27:40] and i presume that that wasn't because there were actual conflicts it's just that you wanted to avoid [1:27:45] an appearance of impropriety it was both both but not all of the companies were conflicts whatever they [1:27:52] made invested from i don't make the call they make the call yeah i guess my point would be the [1:27:56] reason why i ask is why i said it's not a gotcha question i have for years led an effort here in [1:28:00] congress to try to ban members of congress senior executive officials from trading stocks and it's [1:28:05] bipartisan in nature we're working really hard to get that done republicans and democrats and you [1:28:11] can understand i think given your role given the nature of the position that you hold as the [1:28:15] leader of the largest law enforcement agency in our country that divesting entirely not you know doing [1:28:21] day trading now i think would be something that would be in the interest of the american people [1:28:25] so i just would hope you consider that and that moving forward that perhaps not purchasing stocks [1:28:31] in individual companies i would think would be something that would be uh worth pursuing [1:28:35] gentlemen gentlemen's time yeah i'm happy to give the witness an opportunity thank you i'll work [1:28:39] with you on it gentlemen from uh uh alabama is recognized thank you mr chairman thank you director [1:28:44] patel for being here today newly declassified documents confirm that the intelligence community [1:28:50] under president barack obama knowingly relied on unverified and fraudulent evidence to manufacture [1:28:56] a false claim that russia in fact meddled in the 2016 election is there more to be done to [1:29:02] uncover the depths and origins of the russian collusion hoax there is and we're doing it why [1:29:09] should americans still care about that director patel everybody wants to talk about a weaponized [1:29:15] bureaucracy and when we put out the facts about a weaponized bureaucracy not because i said so but [1:29:20] because we found the fisa documents because we found the 302s and the 1023s then it becomes a [1:29:25] political football my job is to continue to put out that information and let the american public read [1:29:30] it for themselves when i'm lawfully able to do so and that's been my commitment on any subject russia [1:29:36] gate or otherwise wherever the law allows me to do it i will do it you know the one when i first came [1:29:41] in in 2020 the number one concern as i was doing town halls was the weaponization of the government [1:29:47] against the american citizen and so are there things that you're doing structural reforms [1:29:52] that implementing so that the fbi cannot be weaponized again whether it's against president [1:29:56] trump or future elected president it shouldn't be weaponized against anyone and the structural reform is [1:30:00] simple if you're going to go after a political individual or someone seeking political office [1:30:06] there has to be a grounded basis in law and fact to open up a criminal investigation and if there's not [1:30:12] the investigation isn't even opened and i've also gone back and reviewed other cases that were opened [1:30:18] in prior administrations related to public officials and we've closed a number of them because we felt [1:30:24] that some of these actions were weaponized on either side of the aisle i felt it wholly inappropriate [1:30:29] for the fbi to be playing umpire and referee amongst these decision makers when there was no factual [1:30:35] or legal basis to continue those investigations so i shut them down and i think that's so desperately [1:30:40] needed because we need to restore trust in law enforcement and certainly in the doj and the fbi [1:30:45] so that american people don't fear the very government that uh that's supposed to protect them and so [1:30:51] thank you for doing that on august 11th you released to the committee documents concerning leak [1:30:56] investigations that began in 2017. do you believe these leaks were accidental or were they intentional [1:31:02] in order to influence public opinion against president trump when i can publicly make a final decision on [1:31:07] that either through a recommendation of charging that the doj makes or findings that i have i'm able [1:31:12] to do so but they're still not complete why did the fbi under director comey want to undermine the trump [1:31:18] administration i don't know you'll have to ask him think it might have been political how will [1:31:25] director comey be held accountable for his leaks and classified information concerning the russian [1:31:30] collusion hoax well anyone doesn't matter what you did before or what seat you were in if you leak [1:31:35] classified information that's illegal and we will investigate it fully and if we can bring enough [1:31:42] evidence to recommend charges to the department of justice we will but as you know in these leak [1:31:46] investigations it's very difficult to produce the information necessary we know leaks happen they [1:31:52] literally happen every week it's one of the most destructive things to this country media receives [1:31:56] classified information beneficial to one side or the other i'm a fan of none of it and i want to shut all [1:32:02] of it down um and we need to bring some real cases to deter individuals from doing that and that's my [1:32:07] focus what was comey's role in creating the ica you know speaking from my memory as the head of the fbi [1:32:17] he was charged um under uh then uh director brennan and director clapper and the other ic elements to [1:32:25] come in with the nsa cia fbi um and odni and put together a collection of information on how um the [1:32:33] information sort of surrounding russia came together so he represented the fbi in that [1:32:37] was former director of cia john brennan he he's denied that the steel dossier was used in creating [1:32:43] the ica is that true well it's without commenting on him the faiza has been released and the dossier [1:32:51] was in the faiza it was in four fizes so i'll let the public decide well former director brennan actually [1:32:59] denied repeatedly that he pushed for the steel doss dossier to be included in the ica is that true [1:33:06] did not i'll let his testimony speak for itself but then deputy director andy mccabe also testified [1:33:13] to the house intelligence committee which has now been declassified that were there no steel dossier [1:33:17] there would have been no faiza well my time's getting close but uh let me tell you this sir [1:33:22] and i'll well my colleague from texas said thank you for the job you're doing you're making the [1:33:27] american people safe you're making you're restoring trust in these agencies that we so many of us had [1:33:32] lost trust in so thank you for the work you're doing that thin blue line you're doing a fine job [1:33:37] and and we want to let you know we appreciate it thank you god bless you any from california is [1:33:43] recognized thank you mr chair and thank you director for coming here today and actually thank you for [1:33:50] your response uh to my colleague from new york who asked you earlier about a violent extremism and you [1:33:58] said that there is violent extreme ideology on both sides and i think you um actually alluded to that [1:34:05] same statement yesterday in the senate so i too have some questions i'd like to ask you these are [1:34:13] not gotcha questions and um just deny please what you deem to be false so dylan roof who followed white [1:34:23] supremacist propaganda murdered nine black parishioners in charleston in 2015. do you deny this [1:34:30] i'm sorry um dylan roof roof roof can you give me uh some more information uh you head of the fbi you [1:34:39] probably know this if you don't know that's fine i can okay you can give me a reminder i've got a lot [1:34:43] in front of me it was national news uh robert bowers murdered 11 jewish worshipers in pittsburgh in [1:34:50] 2018. i do remember that and it was the deadliest anti-semitic attack so do you you admit that that [1:34:56] happened i'm not saying the other thing didn't happen i'm just asking for a little information [1:35:01] patrick cruces who posted a manifesto about a hispanic invasion walked into a walmart in el [1:35:07] paso texas in 2019 and began firing he murdered 23 people that day and the youngest was 15. um [1:35:16] do you admit or deny that that happened i'll take your presentation as accurate all right well i have [1:35:22] to say all of these cases have been adjudicated as i said they are not gotcha questions these [1:35:27] incidents were national news um so and as director of the fbi you have access to all of this information [1:35:34] so in 2022 peyton grendon walked into a supermarket in a black neighborhood in buffalo new york and started [1:35:41] shooting he murdered 10 people that day and on september 10th your friend charlie kirk was [1:35:48] assassinated tyler robinson has been taken into custody and charged but also on that day desmond [1:35:54] holly a 16 year old white male shot and injured two students at a high school in colorado before [1:36:00] killing himself and according to the anti-defamation league he had a fascination with mass shootings [1:36:06] and white supremacy so do you admit to deny these facts those happened okay your predecessor former [1:36:17] fbi director christopher christopher ray said that one of the most dangerous concerns is that racially [1:36:23] motivated violent extremism especially white supremacists has been the biggest chunk of our [1:36:29] domestic terrorism cases and is responsible for the most lethal attacks over the last decade do you [1:36:37] do you admit or deny a that he said this i'll let the reference reflect that whatever he said was [1:36:43] what all right and uh do you agree that there is racially motivated crimes being committed in america yes [1:36:50] yes especially white supremacists which is the biggest chunk of our domestic terrorism i'm glad that you [1:36:56] you said this so last week uh president trump was asked if there were extremists on both the left and [1:37:03] the right uh he was actually asked this by fox and friends and his exact words were i'll tell you [1:37:09] something that's going to get me in trouble but i couldn't care less the radicals on the right [1:37:15] oftentimes are radical because they don't want to see crime the radicals on the left are the problem [1:37:20] and they're vicious and they're horrible and they're politically savvy do you agree with the president [1:37:26] i don't speak for the president the president speaks for himself do you agree with the president [1:37:29] i don't on what matter on the question that i just asked do you agree with his statement about [1:37:35] the radical left that there's ideology that's driving violence on both sides yes that's what [1:37:41] he acknowledged no he he didn't he didn't but i'm glad that you're saying that and actually creating [1:37:46] some separation between you and the president and i'm glad that you literally are acknowledging that [1:37:52] there is violent extremism on both sides what's interesting is that the research arm of the [1:37:58] department of justice the national institute of justice do you know what that is i'm familiar [1:38:03] with them okay great it is the research arm of the department of justice and it published an article [1:38:08] in 2024 devoted to domestic radical radicalization violent extremism and terrorism i i i have it it's [1:38:17] interesting that it's no longer on the website it has been scrubbed but i ask these questions because [1:38:23] what makes a strong qualified director of any business of any household of the fbi what makes [1:38:30] a reputable prosecutor is not lapdog loyalty but a commitment to the creed that evidence is agnostic [1:38:38] and that the evidence will lead you to making the right decisions in your job no one's job is to like [1:38:44] the data or the evidence it is to collect it that is how you gain trust and mr chair i would like to [1:38:50] enter into the record if i may white supremacist group stands by racist ideology i would unanimous [1:39:00] without objection dylan roof the radicalization of the alt-right and ritual ritualized racial violence [1:39:09] that objection thank you another article how robert bowers went from conservative to white [1:39:16] nationalist i'd like to enter that into the record without objection patrick crucis believed he was [1:39:21] fulfilling trump's wishes in el paso attack his attorney said like to enter into the record without [1:39:27] objection buffalo shooting how far right killers are radicalized online i'd like to enter that into [1:39:35] the right without objection evergreen high school shooters online activity reveals fascination with [1:39:42] mass shootings white supremacy i'd like to enter that into the record without objection murder and [1:39:48] extremism in the united states in 2024 a report by the anti-defamation league i'd like to enter that [1:39:56] without objection and the article the report that was scrubbed from the doj just recently national [1:40:04] institute of justice journal focusing on domestic radicalization violent extremism and terrorism i'd [1:40:10] like to enter that into the record without objection and lastly the libertarian think tank kato and [1:40:16] their analysis on violent extremism um and the right rising in extremist acts i'd like to enter that [1:40:25] into the record without objection thank you and i yield back jelly yields back gentleman uh gentlelady [1:40:29] from wyoming is recognized uh just very quickly um director patel thank you for being here for your [1:40:36] service to this country and for the transparency that you have brought to the fbi and for the american [1:40:42] people uh transparency that was absolutely non-existent in the biden administration and fbi i believe that [1:40:50] you might have been asked earlier about whether you had had an opportunity to visit with any of epstein's [1:40:55] legal counsel were you asked that question earlier i i think so okay um one of the legal counsels or [1:41:02] legal fixtures for mr epstein was stacy plaskett the democrat delegate to congress from the virgin islands [1:41:09] so perhaps for those on the other side who are interested in talking to jeffrey upstein's [1:41:14] attorneys they can sure visit with one of their own colleagues um i want to focus on something that i [1:41:20] think is very important that has not been addressed enough today and that is related to the consequences [1:41:27] of the biden open border one consequence of the biden border crisis is the impact that it continues to [1:41:34] have on our tribal communities with the um cartels taking advantage of our open borders our the mexican [1:41:43] drug cartels uh by infiltrating our reservations and bringing violence drugs murder trafficking and more [1:41:51] last year when i questioned the attorney general garland about what the doj was doing to protect these [1:41:56] communities he simply defect deflected responsibility and said that congress had not appropriated sufficient [1:42:03] resources for them to be able to protect our tribal communities mr patel what is the trump fbi doing [1:42:12] to counter the drug cartel in for infiltration and other violent crime targeting our native american [1:42:18] communities thank you it only took more than half of this proceeding to talk about one of the [1:42:25] priorities that the fbi has which is crimes on tribal lands every single crime that we have been [1:42:30] talking about whether it's pregnant child predators human trafficking narco traffickers murder they all [1:42:38] happen on tribal lands as well and i've said since the beginning it is a priority which is why we [1:42:43] launched operation not forgotten on tribal lands and i'm the first fbi director to meet with the staff [1:42:49] and tribal leaders here in washington dc and elsewhere and invited them into my office and headquarters to [1:42:56] see them because i need engagement with tribal leadership and i need our police and fbi agents [1:43:01] to be engaging with tribal leadership otherwise we're not going to break through we have 1900 [1:43:05] indian country cases open right now we've got 600 indictments this year alone we cannot forget tribal [1:43:12] lands every single one of those people lives in the united states of america and it is an absolute [1:43:16] priority to protect them and their children just as it is anyone else so i think it's fair to say that [1:43:21] what mary garland testified to that they didn't that the fbi and doj did not have the resources to [1:43:28] address that i think that that was an absolutely false statement would you agree with me it's a [1:43:32] decision by him not to do so that's not my decision at the end of august the u.s attorney and fbi announced [1:43:38] that nearly 100 personnel representing members of the safe trails task force operated near wyoming's [1:43:45] wind river reservation to assist with reducing drug trafficking and illegal guns director patel [1:43:51] you have routinely stated that it is your mission to partner with and strengthen local and state [1:43:56] law enforcement partners how does the task force and other fbi efforts bring tribal law enforcement [1:44:02] into this process the major problem with tribal lands is the sheer tyranny of geography and the [1:44:09] amount of coverage that they have on land versus the personal they have to do it so what we've done [1:44:15] is constantly surge resources to tribal lands across this country on a 30 60 90 day rotating basis reporting [1:44:22] back to us saying who needs more and what we found is that most of these lands can be assisted by our [1:44:29] counter uas program our drone capabilities and we're going to do it because what's happening is the [1:44:34] mexican drug cartels are literally flying overhead dropping their cargo their narcotics onto this land [1:44:40] your testimony proves that the biden administration did not lack the resources to address drug and [1:44:45] violent crime in tribal communities or around the united states it instead expended and wasted these [1:44:52] resources investigating parents catholics we now find out turning point usa the rnc and republican [1:45:00] organizations rather than protecting our native americans by closing the border is that fair i think so [1:45:07] wonderful thank you and i i do appreciate the work that you've done in this regard i was previously [1:45:12] the chairman of the subcommittee on the indian and insular insular affairs with the natural resources [1:45:18] committee and safety and security on our reservations and for our tribal members has been one of our [1:45:24] priorities one of my priorities and i very much appreciate the work that the fbi has done let me know if [1:45:29] there's anything else i can do to help you and with that i yield back i will ma'am gentlelady yields back [1:45:35] the gentlelady from george is recognized thank you uh chairman and thank you for coming in today mr [1:45:41] patel in the past few months the country has experienced a string of horrific high profile [1:45:47] attacks that have been motivated by racial hatred or political ideology shooter attacked the cdc headquarters [1:45:54] firing hundreds of rounds and killing a police officer an arsonist that fired to the pennsylvania [1:46:00] governor's uh josh chapiro's residence with the governor and his family actually inside minnesota [1:46:06] house speaker melissa hortman and her husband were assassinated earlier this year clark and charlie [1:46:12] kirk was murdered last week bomb threats have been made against hbcus and the dnc and just the list goes [1:46:19] on and on i only have just a few minutes today so i don't want to take a lot of time to go into all [1:46:24] the countless and devastating violent crimes and incidents that have happened at our schools or on our [1:46:30] streets and in our communities that have just been happening all year long mr patel just yes or no [1:46:36] is this type of political violence ever acceptable in your eyes no i'm glad that we agree that these [1:46:44] heinous acts designed to instill fear and division in our nation are never ever acceptable yet each of [1:46:51] these incidents has recently taken place under your watch the fbi's website states that protecting the [1:46:57] united states from terrorist acts is the fbi's number one priority including from domestic terrorists [1:47:04] is this still your number one priority domestic terrorism preventing domestic terrorism our number [1:47:11] one priorities are protecting the homeland and international terrorism and crushing violent crime [1:47:16] and domestic terrorism sort of interlays between both of those okay so well then i'm glad that you're [1:47:21] giving us the right answer but unfortunately your actions kind of tell a different story early this year you [1:47:28] granted the ranks of the fbi's domestic terrorism operation section this is the section of the fbi that is [1:47:35] most directly responsible for addressing political violence in our country by preventing attacks from [1:47:41] occurring and effectively responding to them if they do the agents in this section are the ones who [1:47:47] stopped an individual stockpiling weapons who plan to attack schools and churches in florida and [1:47:53] seized bombs made by an isis sympathizer in new orleans and instead of ensuring that this section has all the [1:48:00] resources that it needs at a time when its mission is critical you fired its decorated veteran fbi agents [1:48:09] who have served their country proudly under republican and both democratic presidents and you scrap the tools [1:48:16] that they develop to fight domestic terrorism including the national domestic terrorism incident database [1:48:23] i mean most of that is just not true we have 1700 current dt managed programs we're up 300 percent in the amount of [1:48:31] cases we brought against nihilistic violent extremists including 764 wishing to harm our children the fbi and the men and [1:48:38] women are getting after that problem set more than ever because i've unleashed them to do so in any [1:48:43] situation that these tragic occurrences across the country are somehow singularly my fault or disgusting [1:48:50] because that watershed goes down to the men and women at the fbi and they are not responsible for it i'm [1:48:56] happy to work with you to get them what they need the gentlelady controls the time unanimous consent request [1:49:02] she'll state a request very much into the record an article from rooters titled fbi scales back [1:49:07] staffing tracking of domestic terrorism probes sources say thank you very much objection i appreciate [1:49:13] that so mr patel and it isn't just the domestic terrorism operation section under your watch agents [1:49:20] are fully diverting their attention to these anti-immigrant and city takeover operations leaving our [1:49:26] children vulnerable to dangerous networks of online predators both domestic and international you pulled [1:49:32] more than 120 fbi agents from their normal duties to operate sobriety checks and conduct traffic stops [1:49:40] exposing the fbi's fleet of unmarked cars and thereby making it harder for the fbi to combat violent [1:49:48] criminal gangs foreign intelligence services and drug traffickers in the process that's simply not true [1:49:56] if we were not able to do two things at one time how would we be seeing record amounts [1:50:00] of fentanyl 23 000 violent felons have been arrested more than twice as many as last [1:50:08] thank you very much and this request basically is uh it is an article from rooters which quotes [1:50:15] law enforcement officers familiar with agents who once covered child exploitation cases but now focus [1:50:19] on immigration child exclusive thousands of agents diverted to trump immigration track down [1:50:26] mr patel in the short time i have left your tenure is so congratulations jd be be vicious like they are [2:01:25] they're violent people they're violent vicious scum before asking vice president vance to speak about [2:01:32] these efforts i want to express our tremendous gratitude to our outgoing director of national [2:01:36] intelligence tulsi gabbard who's a terrific person actually so congratulations jd be be vicious like they are [2:01:51] they're violent people they're violent vision january 6th and trump's mega base lambasted you online for [2:01:59] keeping him at the fbi so he's no longer at the fbi you also fired a decorated combat veteran with [2:02:06] decades of experience in the bureau special agent walter giardia because he worked on the investigation [2:02:15] into the russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and helped investigate trump's ally peter [2:02:22] navarro director patel it is very clear that you have flunked your own test you put saving your job [2:02:31] which i actually believe you were being honest about during your confirmation hearings over doing what's [2:02:37] right for the fbi and the american people that is not adherence to the law thank you and i yield back [2:02:46] time of the gentlelady is inspired uh the chair now recognizes the gentleman for north carolina [2:02:52] thank you mr chairman director patel it's great to have this opportunity thank you for being here [2:02:57] thank you for your service and i've got to say one of the most disheartening components of the previous [2:03:02] administration when i was working with local law enforcement all over the state of north carolina [2:03:07] all over the country people rightfully did not really care about the inner world it's important [2:03:12] for this fbi to be transparent without jeopardizing our investigation so a little bit of the timeline [2:03:17] is important charlie kirk was unfortunately assassinated on september 10th we immediately [2:03:21] the next day released images early in the day in local time in utah to start the public partnership [2:03:27] in our manhunt for the assassin and culprits at approximately 5 pm local time i arrived on the [2:03:33] ground and walked the crime scene myself and we flew multiple fbi assets in and out to process dna [2:03:39] simultaneously while bringing in evidence response tacticians hostage rescue teams and other experts to [2:03:44] assist state and local law enforcement with their investigation at 8 pm local on september 11th the [2:03:49] fbi collected and populated and promulgated at a press conference a video of the suspect on the grounds [2:03:56] we also released enhanced images due to that release that i directed and ordered the suspect involved was [2:04:04] apprehended and in custody at 10 pm local time that's less than two hours after we did the video [2:04:09] release and the photo release so within 33 hours that individual suspect was in custody and his family [2:04:15] who has since been interrogated specifically stated to fbi