Newly released internal communications reveal that FBI Director Kash Patel personally directed a senior bureau official to respond to an anonymous social media account criticizing his handling of Jeffrey Epstein files. The February exchange involved Director Patel and Benjamin Williamson, the FBI’s assistant director for public affairs. These records, published this week following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, offer a glimpse into internal discussions regarding public relations strategies within the federal agency amidst intense scrutiny.
The communications, released through the FBI’s Vault as part of a larger collection concerning the bureau’s review of investigative holdings related to Epstein, detail Patel forwarding a February 4 X post from an anonymous account. This account was reportedly mocking the FBI director amid ongoing criticism surrounding the bureau’s management of Epstein-related records. According to the messages, Patel explicitly instructed his communications team to counteract such criticism by posting statistics that he described as highlighting the FBI’s strong enforcement record.
"What i asked you and your team to do is find them, and post our record year results back at them all, continously [sic]," Patel wrote in the released messages. The dialogue quickly evolved into a disagreement over the appropriateness and efficacy of the FBI directly engaging with an anonymous social media account.
Patel initially misinterpreted an engagement figure, believing it indicated hundreds of thousands of responses to the post. Williamson corrected this, explaining that the number represented views rather than direct replies, and that the post had received only approximately 400 responses. Following this clarification, Williamson expressed strong reservations about the proposed direct response. "Yes. we’re not responding to" the account, he wrote, adding, "That would look bad on you."
Director Patel, however, reiterated that his primary concern was not the identity of the anonymous account but the broader audience encountering the criticism. "Its not about them, it is about the number of views, because people see it and need to be seeing our stats," Patel wrote, emphasizing the importance of public perception and the need for the FBI’s positive performance metrics to be visible to those exposed to negative commentary.
The released records do not definitively establish whether Williamson or other FBI staff ultimately implemented a broader campaign to respond to users criticizing Director Patel. When contacted for comment on the messages on Friday, the FBI declined to provide a statement, according to People Magazine.
This correspondence surfaced after the Democracy Defenders Fund, a watchdog organization, obtained FBI records through a FOIA request. These records pertained to the government’s handling of Epstein-related material. The organization claims its review uncovered internal FBI and Justice Department communications that, in its view, should have been released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The Democracy Defenders Fund has since provided additional records to the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) as part of an ongoing audit.
The bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act was signed into law by President Donald Trump in November 2025, after garnering broad support in Congress. The Democracy Defenders Fund asserts that the Justice Department has publicly released approximately 3.5 million pages out of roughly 6 million pages it reviewed, though this figure represents the organization’s characterization of the department’s compliance with the act.
The February social media exchange occurred shortly after the Justice Department released more than 3 million Epstein-related files. It also took place one day after Director Patel appeared in an interview
