Newly released messages show FBI Director Kash Patel pressing the bureau’s public affairs office to answer an anonymous account criticizing his handling of the Epstein case, despite an aide’s warning that responding would “look bad.”

FBI Director Kash Patel directed senior bureau officials to respond publicly to an anonymous social media account that criticized him over the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, according to internal text messages released through the Freedom of Information Act.

The records do not show that Patel ordered an investigation, subpoena, surveillance operation, or other law enforcement action against the account. They document his effort to have the FBI’s communications team counter criticism by posting statistics about the bureau’s performance.

The exchange occurred Feb. 5 between Patel and Benjamin Williamson, the FBI’s assistant director for public affairs. It became public Thursday as part of a collection of FBI records concerning the bureau’s review of Epstein-related investigative files.

The FBI declined to comment when contacted Friday.

Patel wanted repeated public responses

The messages show Patel forwarding a link to a post from an anonymous X account whose name contains a derogatory slur. The post mocked Patel and said his “rating just went to all-time highs. Congratulations Kash.”

Patel instructed Williamson and his staff to identify critical posts and repeatedly answer them with information about the FBI’s recent results.

“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.

Williamson initially resisted. The public affairs chief described the user as an “‘Epstein didn’t kill himself’ bot account” and corrected Patel’s apparent misunderstanding of the post’s engagement figures.

Patel appeared to believe the post had received 227,000 replies. Williamson explained that the larger number represented views, while the post had generated approximately 400 replies.

“Yes. we’re not responding to” the account, Williamson wrote. “That would look bad on you.”

Patel answered that the account’s identity was less important than the number of people who had seen 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.

The released messages do not establish whether Williamson ultimately posted a direct response to that specific account.

Dispute followed Epstein interview

The social media post appeared one day after Patel discussed the Epstein case during a Feb. 3 interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier.

Patel said he accepted the official conclusion that Epstein died by suicide in a federal jail in New York City in August 2019. Epstein, a convicted sex offender, had been awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

The New York City medical examiner ruled the death a suicide. A Justice Department inspector general investigation identified serious misconduct, staffing shortages, falsified records, and surveillance system failures at the Metropolitan Correctional Center but said it found no evidence contradicting the FBI’s determination that there was no criminality associated with Epstein’s death.

Conspiracy theories alleging that Epstein was murdered have persisted across the political spectrum. Patel and other Trump allies faced criticism after entering office from some conservative commentators who expected new FBI leadership to release evidence supporting those theories.

The anonymous post also followed the Justice Department’s release of more than 3 million pages of Epstein-related material.

Records released after watchdog request

The messages were released after a Freedom of Information Act request from the Democracy Defenders Fund, which sought FBI and Justice Department communications concerning the review and publication of Epstein records.

The watchdog organization said the government had released approximately 3.5 million of the roughly 6 million pages it reviewed under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. President Trump signed the legislation in November 2025 after it passed Congress with broad bipartisan support.

The newly disclosed texts provide a direct look at how Patel responded privately to online criticism surrounding the politically sensitive case.

Messages raise questions about bureau resources

The episode is likely to add to scrutiny of Patel’s communications practices and his use of official FBI accounts.

Patel has argued that frequent public updates increase transparency and allow the bureau to answer misleading claims. Critics contend that an FBI director’s focus on individual social media posts risks turning government communications personnel into a personal reputation management operation.

The records show Patel directing government employees to counter a critic, but they do not show the FBI using its investigative authority to identify, punish, or legally compel the anonymous user.

That makes the “targeting” characterization potentially misleading if readers interpret it to mean the anonymous account was the subject of a formal FBI investigation. What the documents establish is narrower: Patel wanted the bureau’s public affairs staff to identify critical posts and respond continuously with favorable FBI statistics, even after his communications chief warned that engaging directly with the anonymous account could reflect poorly on him.

An Ohio judge suspended most of Yvio Michel’s jail sentence after he pleaded no contest to charges stemming from a deadly Interstate 75 pileup. ICE is expected to take custody of him after his release.

A Florida truck driver received 20 days in jail for causing a chain-reaction crash that killed an Ohio father and his 11-year-old son, a sentence that has sparked sharp criticism online.

Lima Municipal Court Judge Tammie K. Hursh sentenced 53-year-old Yvio Michel of Boynton Beach, Florida, to two consecutive 10-day jail terms following his no-contest pleas to negligent homicide and vehicular manslaughter.

Michel, a Haitian national with a pending asylum claim, was driving a tractor-trailer north on Interstate 75 when he failed to stop for traffic backed up near the Cridersville exit on Feb. 28, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

Reports differ on Michel’s precise immigration status. The Daily Wire reported that he was living in the country illegally while seeking asylum, while local reporting described him as legally present. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has reportedly placed a detainer on him.

Traffic Had Stopped Ahead

The crash occurred shortly after 8:15 p.m. in the northbound lanes of I-75 near Fort Shawnee, close to the Allen-Auglaize county line.

Traffic had slowed or stopped because of a vehicle fire farther ahead. Investigators said Michel failed to maintain an assured clear distance and drove his 2017 Great Dane tractor-trailer into the backed-up vehicles.

The resulting collision involved four passenger vehicles and another semi-truck. A 2015 Buick Enclave carrying the Gipson family became trapped between the two large trucks.

Hurshel Gipson, 52, and his 11-year-old son, Michael, were pronounced dead at the scene. Hurshel’s wife, 45-year-old Amanda Gipson, was driving the Buick and suffered serious injuries.

Another motorist was also seriously injured, while Michel and at least one additional driver were taken to a hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening. The interstate remained closed for approximately five hours as emergency crews responded and investigators examined the scene.

Most of Jail Sentence Suspended

Authorities initially charged Michel with two counts of negligent homicide and two counts of vehicular manslaughter.

Under a plea agreement, Michel pleaded no contest to one count of negligent homicide and one count of vehicular manslaughter. Prosecutors dismissed three other charges, including a second homicide count and a charge of failing to maintain an assured clear distance.

Hursh imposed a 90-day jail term for negligent homicide but suspended 80 days. She also sentenced Michel to 180 days for vehicular manslaughter, suspending 170 days.

Because the remaining 10-day terms are being served consecutively, Michel’s total time behind bars is 20 days.

The court also ordered:

• A two-year driver’s license suspension
• Six points against Michel’s driving record
• $1,000 in fines
• Payment of court costs

The Allen County Sheriff’s Office lists Michel’s scheduled release for 8 a.m. on Sept. 21.

Sentence Draws Backlash

The punishment drew widespread criticism after details of the plea agreement and suspended sentences circulated online.

Blue Lives Matter was among the groups condemning the outcome, arguing that 20 days in jail did not adequately reflect the loss of two lives or the lasting harm suffered by the surviving members of the Gipson family.

The case has also entered the wider debate over commercial truck safety and the licensing of foreign-born drivers. Federal officials have increased scrutiny of licensing standards, English-language requirements, and state compliance with rules governing commercial driver’s licenses.

ICE is expected to take Michel into federal custody after he completes his local sentence.

For the Gipson family the consequences of the February crash are permanent. Hurshel and Michael were killed at the scene, while Amanda survived a collision that reportedly began when Michel failed to stop for traffic directly ahead of him.

An investigation found that businesses owned by Republican Gov. Jim Pillen employed workers without legal status, but Pillen and his company deny knowingly hiring anyone unauthorized to work in the United States.

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen’s family-owned pork business has employed illegal immigrants at farms across the state even as the Republican governor expanded Nebraska’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities, according to a joint investigation published Wednesday.

The Flatwater Free Press investigation, conducted in partnership with The New York Times, found that at least 20 Pillen Family Farms operations employed workers who lacked legal status. Reporters based the finding on court documents and interviews with more than two dozen current and former employees, including several managers.

Six former workers acknowledged that they were not authorized to live or work in the United States. Two people told reporters that their undocumented relatives were currently working at a Pillen-owned farm near St. Edward.

Pillen’s office and family business denied knowingly employing unauthorized workers.

“Jim Pillen never knowingly hired an illegal immigrant and went above and beyond the legal requirements to verify the immigration status of his employees,” spokeswoman Laura Strimple said.

Sarah Pillen, the company’s co-chief executive and the governor’s daughter, offered a similar response.

“Our team takes a great deal of pride and responsibility in following all employment laws. We have never knowingly hired an illegal immigrant,” she said.

Court records document fraudulent identities

Court records show that at least 12 Pillen workers were charged with using false or stolen identities for employment between 2015 and 2024, according to the investigation.

Nine were convicted, and three failed to appear in court. Pillen Family Farms was not accused of criminal wrongdoing in those cases.

Other former workers and relatives described additional cases in which employees allegedly used false identities without facing charges.

David Armendariz, a Mexican national who said he overstayed a tourist visa in 2008, told the news organizations that he worked at two Pillen farms before leaving in 2023. He alleged that a manager accepted a fraudulent driver’s license that another employer later rejected.

“Everyone knows that it’s not your name,” Armendariz said, referring to the alleged use of false identities, “but they don’t ask you what your name is.”

A former farm manager, speaking anonymously, alleged that he once told an applicant to obtain another identification document after the company flagged the first one as fraudulent.

Former manager Quinten Rowley offered important countervailing context. He said Pillen Family Farms intensified its background checks around the time Pillen entered politics, forcing managers to reject more applicants who could not pass verification.

The business enrolled in the federal E-Verify system on the day Pillen launched his first campaign for governor. E-Verify allows employers to compare information from employment eligibility forms with federal records, although the system cannot always detect identity theft when an applicant presents valid information belonging to another person.

Pillen denies knowing violations

Pillen declined interview requests and did not answer written questions from the reporters. His spokeswoman said he had the strongest record on immigration enforcement of any Nebraska governor.

The investigation found no record of Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducting an employment audit or inspection at Pillen farms during the previous 15 years.

A former human resources specialist, Luis Lucar, sued Pillen Family Farms in 2021 and alleged that the company knowingly hired undocumented workers, changed names in company and government records, misclassified employees, and falsified federal employment forms.

The company denied Lucar’s allegations. Pillen’s campaign spokesman at the time described Lucar as a disgruntled former employee and immigration activist. Both sides agreed to dismiss the lawsuit in 2022.

Prosecutors interviewed for the investigation said employers are rarely targeted when workers are charged with identity fraud.

Company now run by Pillen’s children

Pillen founded the business that became Pillen Family Farms more than three decades ago, beginning with approximately 60 breeding sows. It has since grown into one of the nation’s largest pork producers, employing about 1,200 people in four states and Canada.

The company owns roughly 100 Nebraska hog farms and ranks 14th nationally among pork producers, with approximately 78,000 sows, according to the investigation.

Pillen retains ownership of the business, while his children, Sarah and Brock Pillen, have managed its operations since he became governor in 2023.

The family also holds a minority interest in Wholestone Prestage, a pork-processing cooperative in Fremont. At least 56 workers there have been charged with using fraudulent identification since 2019.

Governor expanded cooperation with ICE

The findings have potential significance because Pillen has increasingly aligned himself with President Donald Trump’s immigration policies while seeking reelection.

Shortly after Trump returned to office, Pillen directed the Nebraska State Patrol to assist ICE with immigration enforcement. He also authorized the federal government to use a former state prison in McCook as an immigration detention facility, popularly called the “Cornhusker Clink.”

“The criminal illegal aliens who have invaded our country must be removed,” Pillen wrote in a December social media post. “I will do everything in my power to stand strong with President Trump to get the job done.”

Pillen has also distinguished immigrants who work and avoid other crimes from violent offenders. Following a 2025 workplace raid in Omaha, he said people who were “working hard and being a good neighbor” were “A-OK,” although he separately described identity theft as a serious offense.

He later said he was “100 percent opposed” to mass deportation and acknowledged that agriculture, construction, hospitality, and other Nebraska industries depend heavily on immigrant labor.

The positions reflect a wider conflict facing Republican-led agricultural states. Employers report chronic labor shortages and rely extensively on immigrant workers, while federal enforcement policies expose unauthorized employees to legal consequences.

As Pillen campaigns on cooperation with Trump’s immigration enforcement effort, questions about what his company knew, how its safeguards operated, and why the farms apparently avoided federal audits are likely to follow him through the election.

Authorities in Poland, Norway, Latvia, and Britain say they are still waiting for U.S. assistance as they investigate leads emerging from the government’s massive release of Jeffrey Epstein records.

European investigators pursuing potential crimes exposed by the Jeffrey Epstein files say the U.S. Justice Department has not responded to requests for evidence, raising questions about whether foreign cases can advance without access to unredacted American records.

Officials in Poland, Norway, and Latvia told The Washington Post that they had requested mutual legal assistance from the United States but had not received the material they sought. British authorities have reportedly encountered similar difficulty obtaining unredacted records for investigations involving former public officials.

The delays have emerged nearly a year after the Justice Department began releasing large volumes of investigative material under a federal transparency law. Those records prompted inquiries across Europe by exposing correspondence, financial relationships, travel, and meetings involving Epstein and prominent international figures.

Being named or mentioned in the files does not establish criminal conduct. Some records concern ordinary social or professional contact, and many people identified in the material have denied knowing about or participating in Epstein’s crimes.

The Justice Department also disputes the suggestion that it has refused to cooperate.

“The Department of Justice has not refused to assist any jurisdiction investigating potential criminal conduct related to Jeffrey Epstein,” a department spokesman previously said.

The spokesman said U.S. and foreign authorities must follow established legal procedures when sharing evidence and that the department remains committed to cooperating with jurisdictions investigating potential crimes.

That statement does not resolve the central problem identified by European officials: Several requests have reportedly produced neither evidence nor a substantive response.

Poland requested unredacted records in April

Polish prosecutors asked the Justice Department in April for unredacted records involving Poland or Polish nationals, spokesman Przemysław Nowak told the Post. He said the office had not received a response.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced the investigation in February after references to Poland surfaced in the released files. Authorities said they would examine whether Polish citizens, particularly minors, could have been victimized.

At the time, investigators had not publicly identified evidence proving that Polish children were abused through Epstein’s operation. The inquiry was intended to determine whether the references in the files justified criminal proceedings or victim-identification efforts.

The distinction remains important: Opening an investigation means authorities are examining evidence, not that they have established an offense or identified a criminal suspect.

Norway and Latvia also report silence

Norwegian prosecutor Marianne Bender said her office had not heard back from the Justice Department, describing the absence of a response as “unfortunate.”

Norwegian authorities have opened several inquiries involving public figures whose relationships with Epstein were documented in released emails and financial records. Those cases include corruption allegations involving former senior officials and diplomats. The accused have denied wrongdoing, and the investigations remain subject to their respective judicial processes.

An official with Latvia’s State Police offered a similar account.

The agency “sent several requests for mutual legal assistance to the relevant authorities in the United States,” the official told the Post, but “no responses have yet been received.”

Mutual legal assistance requests are formal government-to-government mechanisms used to obtain documents, testimony, financial information, and other evidence located in a foreign country. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs generally coordinates the American response.

Such requests can take weeks or months, particularly when they involve large document collections, privacy restrictions, victim information, grand jury material, or evidence connected to pending litigation. That bureaucracy could explain at least part of the delay, but the reported lack of acknowledgement has intensified concerns among investigators working against evidentiary and statutory deadlines.

British investigation faces similar obstacle

British authorities are seeking unredacted material connected to investigations involving former U.S. Ambassador Peter Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew.

Both men were arrested in Britain in connection with investigations arising from the files and later released while inquiries continued. Neither has been formally charged, and both have denied wrongdoing.

Mandelson’s case reportedly concerns whether he improperly disclosed confidential government information to Epstein while holding public office. Published emails have raised questions about information involving proposed policies and international financial decisions, but prosecutors would need admissible, unredacted evidence to establish the full context of any communications.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley said earlier in 2026 that British authorities would eventually need the unredacted American material. Scotland Yard reportedly escalated its effort from an informal request to the formal mutual legal assistance process after receiving no initial response.

Anonymous sources cited in British reporting have suggested that the delay threatens the Mandelson investigation. Metropolitan Police sources have also cautioned that the inquiry remains active and that investigators are collecting evidence through other channels.

Public release is not the same as evidence sharing

The Justice Department has published millions of pages, but public disclosure does not necessarily give prosecutors what they need for a criminal case.

Files released online may be heavily redacted, lack formal authentication, omit attachments, or contain victim-identifying information that cannot lawfully be distributed without safeguards. Foreign prosecutors may also need witness statements, original electronic records, or affidavits from American custodians to introduce evidence in court.

The department has faced similar accusations inside the United States. New Mexico sued the federal government in August, alleging that DOJ withheld unredacted Epstein records needed for a state investigation. The Justice Department responded that it could not provide victim-identifying information wholesale and said New Mexico had not supplied a legal basis for its broad request.

Epstein died in federal custody in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. His associate Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of helping recruit and groom underage girls and is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence.

The European cases could determine whether the files lead to additional accountability or remain largely a public archive of troubling but untested information. For now, authorities in several allied countries say the evidence they need remains in American hands, and their formal requests remain unanswered.