FBI Director Kash Patel wants to ‘stay out of Trump-Elon thing’, says ‘I know my lane…’

FBI Director Kash Patel preferred to stay out of the “Trump-Elon” thing after the tech billionaire made bold claims on Thursday that US President Donald Trump was “in the Jeffrey Epstein files”.

According to a New York Post report, Patel was in the middle of a two-hour interview on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast when Musk made these claims.

“I'm not participating in any of that conversation between Elon and Trump,” a surprised Patel said after learning of the shocking statement made by the world's richest man.

As soon as Rogan learned of Musk's statement, he asked Kash Patel, “Jesus Christ! That's a crazy thing to say. How does he know? Does he know that Donald Trump is in the Epstein files? Or does he have access to the Epstein files?”

Responding to Rogan, according to the report, Patel said that he didn't “know he would” know anything about the contents of the Epstein files, but declined to speak further about the feud.

“I'm just staying out of the Trump-Elon thing; that's way outside my lane,” he said. “I know my lane, and that ain't it.”

Trump-Musk ongoing feud

The dramatic rupture between the US President and the world's richest man began this week with Musk's public criticism of Trump's “big beautiful bill” pending on Capital Hill. Musk has warned that the bill will increase the federal deficit and called it a “disgusting abomination”.

Trump criticised Musk in the Oval Office, and before long, he and Musk began trading bitterly personal attacks on social media, sending the White House and GOP congressional leaders scrambling to assess the fallout.

As the back-and-forth intensified, Musk suggested Trump should be impeached and claimed without evidence that the government was concealing information about the president’s association with infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

"Time to drop the really big bomb: (Trump) is in the Epstein files," Musk posted on his social media platform, X. “That is the real reason they have not been made public,” he wrote.

He initially doubled down on the claim, writing in a follow-up message: "Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out." Musk appeared by Saturday morning to have deleted his posts about Epstein.

What Kash Patel said on Joe Rogan's podcast

According to the New York Post report, Patel had discussed the pending release of surveillance video taken of Epstein's Manhattan jail cell that proves the convicted child sex trafficker killed himself in August 2019.

Speculations have been rife since Epstein's death that he was killed by someone afraid he would expose sex crimes of prominent figures in politics and finance whose friendship he had cultivated over several decades.

“I’m not saying every single camera in the place was working,” Patel told Rogan. “I’m saying we’ve got footage and you’re getting it, and then you can make up your own mind."

Democrats sent a letter to Patel on Thursday requesting the complete unsealing of the investigative file into Epstein, the report said.

“We write with profound alarm at allegations that files relating to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have not been declassified and released to the American public because they personally implicate President Trump,” Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) wrote in their letter.

“We ask that you immediately clarify whether this allegation is true and respond to this letter with the requested information and documentation.”

What are the Jeffrey Epstein files?

In February this year, the US Justice Department released Jeffrey Epstein's address book, featuring a range of celebrities and politicians. However, the Justice Department clarified that the list is a contact list, ‘not a client list’.

The list includes Michael Jackson, actor Alec Baldwin, Mick Jagger, Naomi Campbell, Courtney Love and Robert F Kennedy Jr's mother, Ethel Kennedy. Though the names were revealed in the files, the Justice Department withheld their addresses and contact information, the report added.

Other high-profile celebrities and political figures on the contact list include Bob Weinstein, the brother of Harvey Weinstein; David Koch; late Sen Ted Kennedy; actor Ralph Fiennes; Kerry Kennedy; lawyer Alan Dershowitz; John Kerry; actor Dustin Hoffman; businessman Jon Huntsman; Ivana Trump, Ivanka Trump; and model Liz Hurley. The president’s name was not on the contact list.

The millionaire financier, who socialised with royalty and celebrities, was accused of running a large network of underage girls for sex. While awaiting trial, he killed himself in his jail cell in 2019.