India, March 13 -- A claim has gone viral on social media, which states that California US House Rep. Ted Lieu played a recording of Kash Patel at his US House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Jeffrey Epstein files row.

The posts go on to state that in the video, Patel purportedly states in the video that Trump told him to "bury" the Epstein files. It then claims that Patel invoked his Fifth Amendment rights to deny answering Lieu's questions on the video.

However, Ht.com can confirm that the video is fake. First up, the posts suggested that the Patel underwent a House Judiciary Committee hearing in March 2026, which is not the case. Patel last testified before the Committee on September 17, 2025, during an oversight hearing on the FB...