Patel’s FBI Drops Bestiality Hiring Ban
sex crimes
Under Director Kash Patel, the bureau will now “consider the whole person.” Applicants who hired prostitutes or stole from an employer can also clear the old automatic disqualifiers. The change sits on the director’s desk
Patel’s FBI has removed bestiality from the bureau’s automatic hiring-disqualification list.
A CBS News investigation reported that the bureau issued revised background-check guidance on June 16. The new rules allow the FBI to consider an applicant who engaged in bestiality or animal cruelty before age 18. The conduct no longer automatically kills the application.
The old policy was plain. An archived FBI hiring guide listed “engagement in prostitution or bestiality” among automatic disqualifiers. The current published guide no longer lists either.
The policy also gives an opening to applicants who hired sex workers fewer than three times, so long as it happened more than 10 years ago. A candidate who stole from an employer can now receive consideration if the theft occurred more than three years earlier, CBS reported.
Patel defended the bestiality change before the Senate Judiciary Committee by saying it protects trafficking and sexual-abuse victims.
But CBS reported that sources familiar with the revised eligibility rules said they do not distinguish people coerced into sexual activity with animals from people who engaged willingly. Patel said during the hearing that voluntary participants should be disqualified, PBS NewsHour reported.
The FBI says consideration is not a job offer. That does not change the policy: conduct that once ended an application now enters a case-by-case review.