Epstein Files: A viral claim circulating on social media alleges that former US official Kash Patel invoked the Fifth Amendment at a congressional hearing after a recording of the case of Jeffrey Epstein was played by a congressman, Ted Lieu. The posts claim that the recording was a recording of Patel claiming that former president Donald Trump requested him to bury files regarding his investigation of Epstein. Nonetheless, upon closer examination of the evidence at hand, one will notice that the statement is not supported by facts and is likely to be a result of misinformed information available on the Internet.
The uproar started when a series of posts on social media had indicated that a theatrical moment transpired during one of the House Judiciary Committee hearings in March 2026. The posts claimed that during the session Ted Lieu had played a hidden tape and Patel had answered by claiming his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. It was shared on Facebook and YouTube and had tens of thousands of views in just a few days. A lot of the users had forwarded the clip, without checking whether the hearing was really done.
According to the publicly available congressional records, Patel never appeared before the House Judiciary Committee in March 2026. His last scheduled time in front of the panel was on September 17, 2025, when he...
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