FBI Director Kash Patel faced pointed questioning from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse over 37 pages of Jeffrey Epstein-related records that the Rhode Island Democrat says remain undisclosed, including what Whitehouse believes could be contemporaneous FBI notes connected to a woman's unsubstantiated allegations against President Donald Trump.
The exchange unfolded during a Sept. 15 Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, where Patel repeatedly pointed to the Justice Department's release of nearly 3.5 million pages under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. When Whitehouse narrowed his questioning to the specific 37 pages, Patel said he wasn't familiar with the records the senator was describing.
"So, what are those 37 pages?" Whitehouse asked.
"I don't know what you're referencing," Patel replied. "We've produced 3.5 million pages, and we will continue to comply with the-" before Whitehouse interjected: "Yes, but not these 37."
The dispute centers on FBI Form 302 reports, which agents use to memorialize witness interviews. Whitehouse said a woman interviewed by the FBI in 2019 alleged that Trump had sexually and physically assaulted her when she was approximately 14 or 15 years old. The claims haven't been substantiated, didn't result in criminal charges, and the Justice Department has publicly described allegations against Trump contained in the released Epstein material as "unfounded and false."
Whitehouse said the Justice Department initially released only one FBI interview record connected to the woman and later published additional 302s after omissions were identified. In his account at the hearing, the later documents included references to Trump that weren't contained in the first record released.
"But we still have 37 undisclosed pages that seem to be the contemporaneous FBI notes that would've formed the basis for the 302 summaries," Whitehouse said. "Am I accurate in suggesting that those 37 pages likely include the FBI contemporaneous notes from that interview, from those interviews?"
Patel didn't confirm Whitehouse's characterization. Instead, he said: "We have complied with the statute and the court orders and produced 3.5 million pages of documents for the first time ever." He added that investigators had reviewed the information previously and made determinations about whether prosecution referrals were warranted.
The 37-page question predates the hearing. In a March 9 letter to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi and Patel, Whitehouse requested preservation of records related to the Justice Department's compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, specifically citing documents concerning the allegations against Trump.
"It appears that 37 pages of records still have not been released-including FBI notes associated with agents' interviews of the accuser," Whitehouse wrote. He also asked the department to preserve material concerning any decision to withhold those records, citing federal record-preservation requirements.
Whitehouse repeated that assertion months later while compiling outstanding oversight requests to the Justice Department, saying the department still appeared not to have published the 37 pages. That remains the senator's characterization; neither Patel's testimony nor the Justice Department's public statements reviewed here establish exactly what those pages contain.
The Justice Department has taken a broader view of its disclosure obligations. In January, it said it had published more than 3 million additional responsive pages, bringing total production under the Epstein Files Transparency Act to nearly 3.5 million pages, along with more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.
DOJ said material not produced fell into categories including duplicate records, privileged material, statutory exceptions and documents unrelated to the Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell case files. The department also said reviewers were instructed to protect victim-identifying information and comply with applicable court orders.
The department's Epstein Library remains online and says it will be updated if additional documents are identified for release. DOJ also cautions that the enormous archive may include material submitted to the FBI that is false or unverified, and specifically said some records contain "untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump."
The Epstein records dispute was one of several contentious topics Patel faced during the four-hour hearing. Senators from both parties also questioned him about changes to FBI hiring standards, personnel decisions, travel, election-security practices and the bureau's internal management.
One separate exchange focused on the FBI's decision to remove certain conduct, including bestiality, from its list of automatic employment disqualifiers. Patel said that change was intended in part to avoid automatically excluding trafficking victims who had been forced into abusive conduct, while lawmakers pressed him over how broadly the revised standards might be applied.
