FBI Director Kash Patel said in his opening statement Tuesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that the “original sin” in the case against Jeffrey Epstein was committed nearly 20 years ago in one of the first prosecutions brought against the disgraced financier.

“The original case involved a very limited search warrant, or set of search warrants, and didn’t take as much investigatory material it should have seized,” Patel said.

He also said court-ordered mandates and protective orders, as well as Epstein’s plea deal and non-prosecution agreement with the government, have made the FBI’s current work more difficult.

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