Kash Patel defends FBI hiring policy shift for trafficking and abuse victims
FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday defended a recent policy change that allows some applicants who have engaged in prostitution and bestiality to be considered for jobs, saying it was meant to ensure that victims of trafficking and abuse are not automatically disqualified. He made the remarks during a heated Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that also focused on FBI firings, election-related concerns and his conduct in office.
The hearing saw repeated clashes between Patel and Democratic senators, who accused him of politicising the bureau, firing agents involved in investigations linked to President Donald Trump and blurring official work with personal travel. Patel, in turn, rejected the criticism and defended his decisions.
The FBI quietly issued guidance this spring removing a blanket hiring ban on applicants who had previously participated in prostitution. The bureau also made a similar change for childhood experience involving bestiality. Under questioning, Patel said the changes did not lower standards but were intended to protect victims from automatic rejection.
"We did not want to punish victims of bestiality, victims who were trafficked. We did not want to make it an automatic disqualification for the FBI to consider you if you were a victim of these awful, heinous acts," Patel said. "We are not going to target victims and prevent them from serving in their capacity to serve this country." Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana pressed him on the reasoning. "When you saw bestiality, I say this with respect: The person who recommended it, why didn't you just say what planet did you parachute in from?" Kennedy asked. Patel said that had been his initial reaction, but added that officials showed him cases in which people had been forced into it and later applied to the FBI. "It's not an automatic disqualification," he said. The Associated Press reported last month that the FBI still plans to bar some applicants who had engaged in prostitution, including those who had done so within the previous 10 years.
Patel was also questioned about whether FBI agents could be sent to polling places on Election Day, with the hearing taking place two months before the November midterm elections. The bureau has opened investigations linked to the 2020 election, including the seizure of voter data in Fulton County, Georgia. Trump has repeatedly claimed elections are rigged and full of fraud, especially before elections, but there is no widespread fraud in American elections. Audits, reviews and recounts in battleground states after the 2020 vote affirmed Democrat Joe Biden's victory.
Asked whether the FBI has the authority to monitor elections, Patel said that responsibility lies with the Department of Homeland Security. He said the FBI's presence on Election Day would be "housed" with election crimes coordinators in each of the bureau's 56 field offices, but he did not rule out sending agents to polling places if there were problems or reports of interference. In a combative exchange, Democratic Senator Peter Welch of Vermont asked, "Do you pledge that you will not in any way interfere in the will of the American people when they go to the polls in November?" Patel replied, "I pledge unequivocally that I will not participate in your charade of lies," and later called Welch a "total fraud".
Democrats also focused on Patel's firing of agents who took part in investigations involving Trump, as well as the bureau's efforts to pursue media leaks and Patel's travel, including a trip to the Winter Olympics in Italy and a snorkelling excursion at the Pearl Harbor memorial in Hawaii. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey attacked Patel in unusually personal terms, saying, "He's an incompetent lackey. He's like an 18-year old-kid who wants to join a fraternity that he could never be a member of, doing keg stands and chugging with friends. He's an embarrassment to the agency and wouldn't qualify even to be an FBI agent." Booker added, "What a mockery you are." Patel responded: "You are the biggest mockery in the United States Senate, and you're sitting next to Schiff," referring to Democratic Senator Adam Schiff of California.
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut questioned Patel over the firing of national security agents with expertise in Iran shortly before the US launched attacks on that country in February. Blumenthal noted that the agents had worked on the FBI investigation into Trump's handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. "Do you think firing the president's political opponents is more important than retaining the decades of experience and expertise monitoring intelligence threats from Iran?" he asked. Patel replied, "I think what's most important is to not have a weaponized FBI, and I will endeavor every single day to make sure we have no one there that is doing that." He later suggested the scale of the departures had been exaggerated, saying many agents had retired on their own, and defended his travel by saying two recent predecessors, Chris Wray and James Comey, had travelled more.
Throughout the hearing, Patel also highlighted what he described as a record-breaking reduction in crime, while Democrats kept the focus on the bureau's internal turmoil, hiring changes, election-related concerns and the removal of agents involved in Trump investigations. The hearing ended with those disputes unresolved, but it underscored the political and operational tensions surrounding Patel and the FBI ahead of the November elections.
