(NewsNation) — FBI Director Kash Patel testified before Congress on Thursday, stating he does not believe Jeffrey Epstein was murdered.
During a Senate Appropriations Committee meeting, Senator John Kennedy, R-La., questioned Patel about a range of topics, including Epstein’s death.
“Did Jeffrey Epstein hang himself or did somebody kill him?” Kennedy asked.
Patel responded, “Senator, I believe he hung himself in a cell in the Metropolitan Detention Center.”
Kennedy pressed further, asking, “Are you going to release all the information about that?”
“Senator, we are working through that right now with the Department of Justice,” Patel replied.
Epstein died of an apparent suicide in his federal jail cell in New York City in August 2019 while awaiting trial.
Before some Epstein files were released in late February, Attorney General Pam Bondi had said in several interviews that Epstein’s actions were “pretty sick.”
The files that were released included Epstein’s flight logs, but nothing groundbreaking was revealed. Most of the information in those files had already been known. The Department of Justice released those files to a small group of conservative influencers first, which brought backlash.
Epstein was originally arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in July 2019. His girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping Epstein traffic minors.