{"id":771787,"date":"2026-09-15T21:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T21:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/771787\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T21:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T21:04:11","slug":"kash-patel-defends-fbi-hiring-policy-on-applicants-who-have-engaged-in-bestiality-fbi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/771787\/","title":{"rendered":"Kash Patel defends FBI hiring policy on applicants who have engaged in bestiality | FBI"},"content":{"rendered":"

The FBI director, Kash Patel<\/a>, defended his agency\u2019s decision to roll back restrictions on agent applicants who have previously engaged in bestiality, arguing the FBI \u201cdid not want to punish victims of bestiality\u201d by automatically disqualifying them.<\/p>\n

The unusual topic of bestiality emerged during a Senate judiciary committee oversight hearing on Tuesday<\/a> after Democrat Dick Durbin and Republican John Kennedy questioned Patel\u2019s decision to remove barriers that previously prevented applicants who engaged in prostitution and bestiality from being qualified for a job at the FBI.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to understand why you did this,\u201d Kennedy told Patel. \u201cWe\u2019re having a tough time attracting agents, good quality agents we all can trust \u2026 Why would you even get into bestiality?\u201d<\/p>\n

Patel said the change was recommended to him after he saw various \u201ccases\u201d in which qualified FBI<\/a> applicants were denied consideration because they had been forced into bestiality as a result of human trafficking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI say this with respect to the person who recommended it, why didn\u2019t you just say: \u2018What planet did you parachute in from?\u2019\u201d Kennedy replied.<\/p>\n

It is unclear how many FBI applicants have fallen into this category. The FBI did not respond to a question about the data to support Patel\u2019s assertion.<\/p>\n

In a statement, an FBI spokesperson insisted the bureau was \u201cnot relaxing hiring standards\u201d and that the change allows it to consider \u201cthe whole of person\u201d in certain circumstances. They reiterated that applicants who engaged in criminal sexual acts were not eligible for employment.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said it had \u201ca number of applicants in previous years who suffered sexual abuse in their past, causing questions about prostitution, bestiality or other similar issues to affect their background check process through zero fault of their own\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey showed me cases in which people were forced into it and had applied to the FBI, and so I thought: \u2018They should be considered. It\u2019s not an automatic disqualification.\u2019 That\u2019s all,\u201d Patel told Kennedy.<\/p>\n

The rule change, first reported by CBS News in August<\/a>, allows the FBI to consider candidates who hired a sex worker under specific circumstances, a person who stole from an employer under certain circumstances, and a person who engaged in bestiality or animal cruelty \u2013 so long as the incident took place before they were 18 years old.<\/p>\n

Kennedy, generally an ally of Donald Trump\u2019s administration, grilled Patel on the hiring qualification change, arguing that it \u201creally hurt\u201d the FBI\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n

At one point, the Republican senator from Louisiana asked Patel whether the change \u201cdisqualified the animal\u201d from FBI service.<\/p>\n

While Patel characterized the change as nondiscriminatory toward victims, Durbin refuted the notion and claimed it was a way to protect those who engaged in bestiality.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou dropped automatic disqualification for applicants who have been engaged in bestiality, not victims of bestiality \u2013 applicants who have engaged,\u201d Durbin said to Patel.<\/p>\n

Patel responded: \u201cApplicants who have engaged in bestiality means they were victims of bestiality because they were forced to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats sent a letter to Patel on Monday<\/a> requesting more information about the rule change and applicants who fell into the categories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The FBI director, Kash Patel, defended his agency\u2019s decision to roll back restrictions on agent applicants who have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-771787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}