Washington DC - FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday insisted that there is no "credible information" that infamous sex offender Jeffrey Epstein trafficked young women to other individuals.

"There is no credible information, none," Patel said at a contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. "If there were I would bring the case yesterday that he trafficked to other individuals."

Some of Donald Trump's closest supporters have tracked the Epstein case for years, believing elites have been protecting Epstein associates in the Democratic Party and Hollywood.

Patel's comments come after he angered many Trump loyalists with a memo in July that effectively closed the investigation into Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for trafficking of underage girls. The president's own relationship with the convicted pedophile has since come under the spotlight.

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It wasn't just Democrats who turned up the heat on Patel during the hearing, as the beleaguered FBI chief also faced questions over his handling of the manhunt for the main suspect in Charlie Kirk's murder, as well as the purge of agents who were previously involved in investigations into Donald Trump.

"This issue is not going to go away," Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, a Republican, told Patel, urging him to release all documents related to Epstein.

"I think you're going to have to do more to satisfy the American people's understandable curiosity in that regard," he added.

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois also asked why the July memo released by the Justice Department was unsigned, to which Patel responded: "Would you prefer I use autopen?"

The quip was a reference to President Donald Trump's obsession with his predecessor Joe Biden's use of autopen to sign legislation.

Patel blamed previous administrations for botched investigations into Epstein, but promised to continue releasing "whatever we are legally permitted to do so."