WATCH: Raskin tells FBI chief Patel ‘you’re not keeping your word’ on releasing more Epstein files

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., criticized FBI Director Kash Patel’s performance as the head of the nation’s lead law enforcement agency Wednesday during a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

Before Patel became the agency's chief, “you railed against it covering up Jeffrey Epstein’s human trafficking ring,” Raskin said. “Let me refresh your memory with this.”

Raskin played a compilation of Patel's interviews.

In one clip, Patel is heard challenging the FBI to release more information related to the convicted child sex offender.

“Put on your big boy pants and let us know who the pedophiles are,” Patel said in 2023 on right-wing commentator Benny Johnson’s podcast.

Raskin said this clip showed that Patel emphasized the president and the FBI director's “complete authority” to release Epstein’s client list.

In another clip, Patel told Blaze Media CEO Glenn Beck that the FBI director had “direct control” of Epstein’s so-called “black book” of contacts.

In a separate hearing Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patel told lawmakers that he’s reviewed most of the Epstein files and that there was “no credible information” that Epstein trafficked to other individuals.

“You were sworn in as director more than 200 days ago. Now the black book is under your direct control,” Raskin said. “So why haven't you released the names of Epstein's co-conspirators in the rape and sex trafficking of young women and girls?”

Patel said the Trump administration has “released more material than anyone else before,” adding that prior Democratic administrations also had opportunities to release this material, but didn’t. These statements echoed what he shared with senators Tuesday.

Raskin asked why Patel he had changed his position, regarding his comments in those interviews before he became FBI director.

Patel said that “everything that has been lawfully permitted to be released has been released.”

The two devolved into a back-and-forth. Patel said that court orders limited what could be released and nodded to his words to senators Tuesday that there was an “original sin” that undermined the case from the start, namely a plea deal approved by one of his predecessors that made it harder to access materials in the case.

Again, Patel lambasted the Obama and Biden administrations for not doing more.

“If you want to blame me, that's fine,” he said. “But now you're blaming the men and women who conducted this –”

Raskin cut him off.

“I'm not blaming anybody other than you,” Raskin said. “You're not keeping your word.”Watch PBS News for daily, breaking and live news, plus special coverage.

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