Fact Check: Did Kash Patel plead the 5th after Ted Lieu played Epstein audio in Congress?
WASHINGTON, DC: Amid the controversies surrounding the release of millions of files linked to Jeffrey Epstein, a claim began circulating on social media platforms that California Rep. Ted Lieu played a recording of the FBI Director Kash Patel at Congress, in which he was asked to bury the files. Let us examine the rumors and fact-check them.
Claim: Donald Trump told Kash Patel to 'bury' Epstein files
According to the viral post, Lieu played a clip of Kash Patel saying President Donald Trump told him to 'bury' Jeffrey Epstein files.
The alleged audio recording of Patel was played at his US House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Jeffrey Epstein files row.
The post further claims that in the video, Patel later invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked by Lieu about the recording.
The claim continues to circulate on social media platforms, garnering hundreds of thousands of views.
Fact Check: False, Kash Patel did not undergo such a hearing
However, the allegation is untrue, as the claim that Patel underwent a House Judiciary Committee hearing in March is not true.
Patel last testified before the Committee on September 17, 2025, during an oversight hearing on the FBI, where he pleaded the Fifth when he chose not to answer questions related to Trump.
Additionally, there are also no credible reports of Ted Lieu playing the clip in question.
According to Snopes, the claim originated as a hoax from the Facebook page 'Morning Current, ' which routinely posts misleading clickbait content with affiliate links.
The claim then spread to YouTube, with a page called Silent Docket posting a video that gained hundreds of thousands of views.
Ted Lieu's allegations against Donald Trump
Lieu is one of the most vocal critics of Donald Trump's involvement in the Epstein files, and has repeatedly attacked the president over the FBI complaint from an anonymous complainant, Katie Johnson, claiming that Trump and Epstein r*ped her as a 13-year-old in 1994.
On February 19, he held a presser in California on the unredacted Epstein files that the House Judiciary committee got to preview, where he claimed that Trump is mentioned thousands of times in them, and they alleged that the POTUS r*ped and threatened to kill minors.
