According to Mediaite, FBI Director Kash Patel faced pointed questions Tuesday from Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) over new hiring standards that no longer automatically reject applicants tied to bestiality. The exchange took place at an annual oversight hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Kennedy focused on why that specific category was handled the way it was in the updated rules. During the back-and-forth, he asked, “So you disqualified the animal?”
Sen. Dick Durbin (IL), the committee’s ranking Democrat, accused Patel of having “turned it upside down.” Patel had maintained that the revisions were intended to help trafficking victims.
Patel said the prior regulations grouped several categories together before he arrived
Critics have called out Patel for easing FBI hiring standards. Under the change, automatic disqualification no longer applies to applicants who paid for sex, stole from an employer, or took part in bestiality or animal cruelty.
Kennedy said he was trying to follow the logic. “OK. What about the bestiality?” he asked. Patel said the earlier regulations had bundled prostitution, bestiality, and trafficking in one framework before he took office. “They were there before I got there,” he said.
Kennedy asked what the old language required. Patel said it automatically disqualified any individual who participated on either side of it. “Obviously, we are never going to hire the criminal,” Patel said.
Kennedy asked, “Side of what? The bestiality?” Patel said yes. Kennedy then asked, “So you disqualified the animal?”
Patel replied, “Well, I don’t think… We have great canines, but we’re not going to-” Kennedy said he understood and was trying to understand why the change was made. He added that the comment was not aimed at Patel personally.
Kennedy said both parties use similar tactics when one holds power, and that this pattern has hurt the FBI. He said the bureau is struggling to recruit agents the public can trust, because many people now believe political views decide who gets hired.
Kennedy asked why Patel would even get into bestiality. Patel said, “We are not into bestiality, but a lot of these individuals–” Kennedy said he knew that, but that Patel had changed the qualifications and mentioned bestiality.
Kennedy asked whether a person named Joe, who took part in bestiality, as the human should be barred. Patel said yes if the conduct was voluntary, but not if the person was trafficked into it.
Kennedy asked how someone could do it involuntarily. Patel said traffickers force victims into degrading acts of all kinds, not only prostitution. He said some of those people later became law enforcement officers and then applied to the FBI.
Patel said advocates had brought him examples of victims who later applied and were automatically rejected. He said people who forced others into bestiality are not covered by the new rules and “all are” in jail.
In his opening remarks, Patel cited the bureau’s work on reducing crime and said agents had captured 10 of the FBI’s most wanted criminals.
Patel’s tenure has drawn separate criticism. In April, The Atlantic published a report claiming he had “alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.” Patel has denied those claims and sued the outlet.
He has also been criticized for using bureau resources on personal trips. In February he posted a photo of himself in a locker room with Team USA in Milan, Italy, after the team won Olympic gold. Video showed him drinking a beer after the 2-1 overtime win over Team Canada.
Patel also went to Hawaii in the summer of 2025. On that trip, he took what was described as a highly unusual “VIP snorkel” around the USS Arizona, the Pearl Harbor memorial that serves as a graveyard for more than 900 sailors and Marines killed in the Dec. 7, 1941, attack.
Published: Sep 15, 2026 11:00 am