Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) confronted FBI Director Kash Patel during Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing over a change to the bureau’s hiring standards that no longer automatically disqualifies some applicants with a history of bestiality.
The exchange traced back to an August CBS News report indicating the FBI had quietly revised its screening criteria in June. Previously, admissions of conduct such as hiring prostitutes, stealing from an employer, or engaging in bestiality would automatically disqualify a candidate from consideration. Under the revised standards, that is no longer guaranteed.
According to CBS’s reporting, the new criteria specifically address applicants with a history of bestiality or animal cruelty, allowing them to remain eligible if the conduct occurred before age 18. Anonymous sources told CBS the updated standards do not distinguish between someone coerced into such acts and someone who participated willingly.
Kennedy pressed Patel on why the bureau would touch such a sensitive area at a moment when the FBI is already struggling to build public trust and recruit agents.
“Why would you, in light of the context and what we’re going through — and we’re having a tough time attracting agents, good-quality agents we all can trust, because so many people, fairly or unfairly, think that in order to be an FBI agent now, your political point of view matters — why would you even get into bestiality?” Kennedy asked.
Patel’s initial reply was blunt: “We are not into bestiality.”
Kennedy kept pushing, asking directly whether a willing participant in bestiality should be disqualified from serving as an agent.
“If he voluntarily did it, sure,” Patel said. “But if he was trafficked into it, then he should be considered.”
Patel then noted the policy change did not originate with him personally. Kennedy asked why, upon learning the recommendation involved bestiality, Patel hadn’t simply rejected it outright.
“And 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? Why do I want to lead with my chin and get into bestiality?'” Kennedy said.
“Well, that was my initial response,” Patel admitted, explaining that FBI officials had shown him cases involving people who had been forced into such acts before later applying to join the bureau. “And so I thought they should be considered. It’s not an automatic disqualification. That’s all.”
Kennedy sought a final, unambiguous answer, asking Patel directly whether someone who had sex with an animal could still become an FBI agent under the current rules. Patel’s response left the policy’s practical boundaries unresolved on the record.
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