Kash Patel’s FBI is being pilloried online after a new report revealed the bureau quietly loosened the vetting standards that once automatically disqualified applicants who had hired sex workers, stolen from an employer or engaged in bestiality.
According to CBS News, the FBI in June eased some background check rules so that those acts, most of them illegal, are no longer instant disqualifiers for would-be agents. A candidate may now get a pass on prostitution as long as they did not hire sex workers three or more times and not within the past decade, and someone who committed bestiality as a minor could still make the cut, sources told the outlet.
The change comes as the FBI lost more than 1,000 special agents in 2025, part of an exodus of firings, forced retirements and polygraphs since Trump returned to power. Critics say the loosened rules point to a recruiting crisis.
“How can this not be reflective of a recruiting problem at the FBI if you are lowering your standards on issues like bestiality and prostitution?” attorney Mark Zaid told CBS.
Online, the reaction mixed disbelief with ridicule.
“Who the hell was the constituency for this,” asked Tom Nichols, staff writer at The Atlantic.
National security journalist Marcy Wheeler put it bluntly: “Kash Patel’s FBI: Where bestiality is not a deal breaker.”
Former FBI profiler Julia Cowley needled the priorities: “But you still have to pass the color vision test.”
Conspiracist researcher Noelle Cook cracked: “A promising new career path for far too many of you.”
Patel has not addressed the specific changes but insists standards are rising, even as he faces scrutiny over hiring deputy Dan Bongino despite a failed background check and accusations of padding recruiting stats.
“We’re not reducing our standards,” he said in a July interview. “We’re actually making it harder.”
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