Kash Patel's latest action opened door to finally releasing Epstein files: analyst

FBI Director Kash Patel took a step that could pave the way to justifying the release of files related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, an analyst wrote Monday.

National security analyst Marcy Wheeler pointed out that last week Patel released documents that included information about uncharged third parties in former special counsel John Durham's investigation into Robert Mueller and his probe into Russia's interference in the 2020 election.

In doing so, Patel "disseminated 'unfounded theories' about them, most notably Julianne Smith, the woman John Durham suspected of entering into a conspiracy to frame Donald Trump," wrote Wheeler.

Smith was a private citizen in 2016 when Russian spies tried to frame her, Wheeler recalled. Durham wanted to link her to wrongdoing, but failed after it became clear that the evidence was falsified.

Wheeler went on to walk through why she believes the case against Smith was "grotesquely stupid," but she argued that by releasing this information, Patel created a precedent.

"Under DOJ guidelines — under the pretext that DOJ and FBI adopted less than a month ago — Smith is the kind of private citizen whose name you continue to mask, as Durham did in the public release two years ago," wrote Wheeler. "Certainly, there’s far less public interest in knowing the ID of someone the SVR framed nine years ago than knowing why the President is making overt efforts to silence the sexual predator who, by his own confession, 'stole' underage girls from his spa, recruiting at least one into sex slavery."

Patel made the name public, even though Smith had nothing to do with the matter.

It "pretty much demolishes his excuse for hiding details about what Trump knew about Ghislaine Maxwell stealing his girls," said Wheeler.

Read her full details here.