Kash Patel Defends FBI Hiring Rules on Bestiality in Heated Senate Hearing

The FBI director said the changes were intended to ensure trafficking victims are not automatically disqualified from service

NEED TO KNOW

• FBI Director Kash Patel defended changes to the bureau’s hiring standards on Tuesday, Sept. 15
• Patel faced questions from senators during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C.
• Lawmakers questioned changes involving prostitution, bestiality and theft from an employer

FBI Director Kash Patel faced pointed questions from senators Tuesday, Sept. 15, over changes to the bureau’s hiring standards that removed prostitution, sex solicitation, theft from an employer and bestiality from its list of automatic disqualifications.

The exchange came during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., where Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin questioned Patel about a June memo outlining the changes.

“According to a memo issued this June, the FBI has lowered its hiring standards by dropping automatic disqualification for applicants who have stolen from their employees, paid for sex, are engaged in bestiality,” Durbin said. “Director Patel, do you believe those who have previously stolen from employers, solicited sex, or engaged in bestiality, are qualified candidates that the FBI is losing?”

Patel, 46, disputed the characterization that the FBI had lowered its standards, saying the changes were intended to ensure victims of trafficking would not automatically be excluded from consideration.

“What we did was, we did not want to punish victims of bestiality, victims who were trafficked,” Patel said. “We did not want to make it an automatic disqualification for the FBI to consider you if you are a victim of these awful heinous acts. They still have to go to the same rigorous standards and application process.”

Durbin followed up, drawing a distinction between someone who was a victim of bestiality and someone who had voluntarily engaged in the conduct.

“What I’m reading is, you dropped automatic disqualification for applicants who have been engaged in bestiality, not victims of bestiality, applicants who have engaged. Do you disagree with that?” Durbin asked.

Patel said the language referred to people who had been forced into the conduct.

“Applicants who have engaged in bestiality means they were victims of bestiality because they were forced to do so,” Patel said. “And at this FBI, we are not going to criminalize and prevent victims from serving the United States of America and the premier law enforcement agency in the world.”

Republican Sen. John Kennedy then pressed Patel for more details about the previous and current rules.

“Before the FBI made these changes, there were certain things that disqualified you from being an FBI agent,” Kennedy said. “The agency said we’re no longer going to allow these things, this behavior, to disqualify you. What were the things you changed?”

Patel reiterated that the policy was intended to address people who had been victims of crimes.

“Simply that if you were a victim of some of these vicious crimes and you wanted to serve this country, the FBI is now for the first time ever considering your application and not disqualifying,” he said.

“Victim of what?” Kennedy asked.

“Prostitution, bestiality, crimes like that,” Patel responded.

Kennedy then asked why the FBI would change its qualifications at a time when, according to the discussion at the hearing, the agency is seeking qualified candidates.

“You changed the qualifications and mentioned bestiality,” Kennedy said. “If Joe participated in bestiality, not as the animal, but as the human, don’t you think he ought to be disqualified?”

“If he voluntarily did it, sure. But if he was trafficked into it,” Patel said.

“Okay. How do you involuntarily do it?” Kennedy asked.

Patel said trafficking can involve forcing people into degrading acts beyond prostitution.

“In a lot of these cases, when human traffickers, who are some of the worst individuals on planet Earth, they don’t just traffic you for prostitution; they traffic you for degrading acts of all kind, and they force you into that type of conduct,” Patel said.

Kennedy also questioned how the change came about.

“I mean, these changes didn’t start with you. Somebody came to you and recommended and when you saw ‘bestiality’ — I say this with respect — why didn’t you just say, ‘What planet did you parachute in from?’ ” Kennedy asked.

“That was my initial response, Senator,” Patel said. “But they then explained to me and showed me cases in which people were forced into it and had applied to the FBI, and so I thought they should be considered. It’s not an automatic disqualification. That’s all.”

The FBI’s previous standards did list “engagement in prostitution or bestiality” as automatically disqualifying, according to an archived FBI webpage from 2023 cited by CBS.

The current version of the FBI’s general eligibility guidance no longer contains references to prostitution or bestiality as automatic disqualifications

The changes were also addressed in a letter sent to Patel by Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday, Sept. 14.

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The lawmakers said a June FBI directive had removed theft from an employer, sex solicitation and bestiality from the list of automatic hiring disqualifications, and said some changes may have been implemented as early as February 2025.

The letter cited specific examples of the revised criteria, including that paying for sex fewer than three times more than 10 years ago would no longer result in automatic disqualification. It also said theft from a previous employer would no longer be an automatic bar if it occurred more than three years earlier.

The senators requested records related to the changes, including the June 16, 2026, memorandum, documents showing who reviewed or approved the revisions and information about applicants whose conduct would previously have resulted in automatic disqualification.

They asked the FBI to provide the requested materials by Sept. 28.

PEOPLE has reached out to the FBI and the White House for comment.

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