Kash Patel defends FBI’s new policy on bestiality at Senate hearing

FBI Director Kash Patel testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.Graeme Sloan / Bloomberg via Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleSept. 15, 2026, 6:47 PM EDTBy Raquel Coronell UribeFBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday found himself defending a new policy at the bureau that does not immediately disqualify potential hires who have engaged in bestiality.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, some senators grilled Patel about the new standards, which he said were established so as not to discriminate against potential victims of sex trafficking who were forced to perform acts of bestiality.

His explanation elicited curious responses, one from Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., who asked Patel why he would “even get into bestiality.”

Patel quickly emphasized that “we’re not into bestiality,” to which Kennedy said, “I know you’re not,” prompting a chuckle from Patel, who said he was trying to explain the policy.

Kennedy asked, “If Joe participated in bestiality, not as 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 responded.

Kennedy went on to ask how a person would “involuntarily do it.” Patel said human traffickers forced people into types of conduct like bestiality and “degrading acts of all kinds” in “a lot of cases.”

He said people at the bureau who suggested the policy change “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.”

Patel said that the previous policy addressed prostitution, trafficking and bestiality and that for bestiality, the rules “automatically disqualified any individual who participated on either side of it.”

“Either side of what? The bestiality?” Kennedy asked. “So you disqualified the animal?”

“Well, I don’t think — we have great canines, but we’re not going to disqualify them,” Patel said.

Add to GoogleFBI Director Patel clashes with lawmakers during Senate Judiciary hearing02:56Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., also inquired about the policy change, asking Patel whether he believed applicants who had engaged in bestiality were qualified candidates whom the FBI was losing.

“Applicants who have engaged in bestiality means they were victims of bestiality because they were forced to do so. 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,” Patel responded, adding he had “eliminated the bureaucracy that prevented these great Americans from serving, or at least being considered to serve.”

The oftentimes tense hearing included Democrats’ pressing Patel on broader topics about his leadership at the bureau and grilling him about his suit against a reporter for The Atlantic and firings and departures at the FBI since he took over.

While Patel was mostly praised by Republicans in the room, he drew heat from Kennedy over the change in hiring practices.

“You’re not telling us today that if a human being had sex with an animal that they can still be an FBI agent, are you?” Kennedy asked. “They can’t be, can they?”

“In fact, they ought to be in jail, right?” Kennedy said.

Raquel Coronell UribeRaquel Coronell Uribe is a politics reporter for NBC News.