In December 2025, a claim (archived) circulated online that FBI Director Kash Patel admitted to deleting 2.7 terabytes of evidence related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The claim circulated as the U.S. Department of Justice released some — but not all — of its files related to Epstein, the sex offender who the FBI died by suicide while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019.
The claim appeared to come from a YouTube video titled "Mrvan Asked 'Where Did the Data Go?' — 62 Seconds Later, Patel's '100% Certain' Lie Was Exposed." The video, which appeared to use narration generated by artificial intelligence, detailed how the Democratic Rep. Frank Mrvan of Indiana allegedly confronted Patel over a trove of data that the FBI director reportedly deleted.
The video also circulated on Threads (archived). Snopes readers wrote in as well, asking whether the claim was true.
The claim was false. "The Political Brief," the YouTube channel that posted the video, wrote in its channel description: "All stories presented are entirely fictional and created for entertainment purposes only. Any resemblance to real persons, events, or situations is purely coincidental and unintentional."
The channel claimed the revelation took place during a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform meeting on Dec. 19, 2025, though no such meeting appeared on the committee's calendar and Mrvan does not sit on this committee. The video used footage from May 2025 from a different committee where Mrvan questioned Patel on a topic unrelated to the Epstein files.
According to "The Patel Protocol," another YouTube channel whose description mirrored that of "The Political Brief," Patel and Mrvan had another alleged standoff about emails to FBI officers on March 18, 2025, in the House Judiciary Committee. Mrvan does not sit on this committee, nor did it have a hearing that day.