FBI Director Kash Patel faces sharp questioning in House hearing after Kirk assassination

FBI Director Kash Patel faced tense questioning Sept. 17 before the House Judiciary Committee over the bureau’s handling of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, rising political violence, and questions about files related to Jeffrey Epstein.

Members of both parties pressed Patel in five-minute rounds, echoing scrutiny he faced in the Senate one day earlier, according to FOX News. 

Several lawmakers sought updates on the investigation into Kirk’s accused killer, Tyler Robinson. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., asked how Robinson reached the rooftop where he allegedly opened fire, calling it an “unimaginable” security lapse. 

“Not commenting on the case but having gone to the crime scene and walked the steps that we believe were taken, the roof was actually readily accessible through an exterior stairwell so anyone could’ve gotten on it,” Patel responded.

Fitzgerald also asked Patel if Robinson may have received help in carrying out the assassination. 

“Our investigation is ongoing,” Patel responded, “and we are interviewing any of those individuals involved in that [Discord] chat and other individuals in the area.” 

Patel told senators Sept. 16 that the FBI is investigating more than 20 individuals who may have communicated with Robinson in online chats, FOX reported.

Other questions probed the broader surge in political violence. Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, asked Patel whether he has observed a left-wing or right-wing “trend in motive” within his work.

“I can always speak generally, sir,” Patel said. “There's too much political violence and it has been a precipitated rise on too many fronts.” 

He later argued that to prevent violence, the FBI needs greater authority to work within the private sector on social media and gaming platforms, which he described as spaces where radical ideology can spread unchecked.

“There are too many places for people from America and around the world to get together without their parents knowing anything about it, without their schoolteachers knowing anything about it,” Patel said. “And infesting the minds of our children and infecting them with radical ideology and that is the root cause of these problems, and we must tackle it.”

“It is not a 1950s America anymore,” Patel added. “In 2025, the cyberspace needs to be tackled.”

Early in the hearing, Patel was pressed on the Epstein files. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., asked why he has not released “the names of Epstein’s co-conspirators in the rape and sex trafficking of young women and girls.”

Patel responded that he has released everything he “has direct control over and can lawfully release,” later adding, “I am not going to break the law to satisfy your curiosity.”

Meanwhile, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, used the hearing to praise Patel for correcting what he called a weaponization of the FBI against conservatives under former FBI Director Christopher Wray. 

"No more spying on parents at school board meetings," Jordan said in his opening remarks. "No more pre-dawn raids on pro-life Catholics, no more retaliation against whistle-blowers, and he's given us information that Chris Wray didn't.”

At the Sept. 16 Senate hearing, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released newly unclassified files he said show that Wray’s FBI targeted 92 Republican-aligned groups, including Kirk’s Turning Point USA. 

Trump later accused the Biden administration on a Sept. 16 Truth Social post of weaponizing the Justice Department to force Kirk “and many other people and movements, out of business.”