ISTANBUL 

FBI Director Kash Patel said Tuesday that convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was not an intelligence source for the bureau.

"I can only speak to the FBI, as the director of the FBI, and Mr. Epstein was not a source for the FBI," Patel told a US Senate committee in response to Sen. Chuck Grassley asking if Epstein was "an intelligence asset for the United States government or the foreign government."

American journalist Tucker Carlson has claimed that Epstein "worked for Israel," though that remains an unverified speculation.

Patel blamed then-US Attorney Rene Alexander Acosta for the "original sin in the Epstein case" in which a limited 2006 investigation resulted in a non-prosecution agreement in 2008.

He said the agreement created "protective orders legally prohibiting anyone from ever seeing that material ever again without the permission of the court."

Patel committed to providing "all records" that he is "legally permitted to do so under the court orders" when requested by Grassley.

Asked who Epstein trafficked victims to besides himself, Patel said: "There is no credible information, none. If there were, I would bring the case yesterday that he trafficked to other individuals."

There is bipartisan congressional efforts to force the release of all federal documents related to the Epstein case.

Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell on Aug. 10, 2019, while awaiting trial for sexually abusing dozens of girls, the youngest 14, and running a prostitution network.