The FBI previously treated an applicant’s admission of hiring sex workers, stealing from an employer, or engaging in bestiality as an automatic bar to employment, CBS News reported. Those acts, which remain illegal in most of the country, are no longer automatic deal breakers for would-be agents and other personnel, according to multiple sources briefed on the matter.
The bureau quietly lowered some of the standards it uses in background checks in June, the sources said. They indicated the FBI did so to make hiring easier in some cases even when candidates acknowledged sexually deviant activities or theft from an employer.
The changes come as the FBI has lost scores of employees through firings, retirements, and resignations since the start of the Trump administration, CBS News reported.
June memo and spokesperson comments described the revised eligibility rules
The new guidance was sent to FBI personnel who handle background checks in a June 16 internal memo known as an electronic communication, sources with direct knowledge of the memo told CBS News.
Under specific circumstances, the FBI is willing to give candidates a pass on prostitution as long as they have not hired sex workers three or more times, the sources said. The hiring also must not have taken place within the last 10 years, several of the sources added.
An FBI spokesperson pointed out that a person may have hired a sex worker in a location where prostitution is legal. A person who was in a position of trust and solicited sex would still be automatically disqualified, one source with direct knowledge of the changes told CBS News. Examples of positions of trust listed in the new policy include public safety, education, health, social work, finance, or law. Being a member of the military was not among the listed categories.
A person who stole from an employer is not automatically disqualified as long as the incident occurred more than three years ago, one source with direct knowledge said. The new standards also address applicants who engaged in past acts of bestiality or animal cruelty, saying they may still be considered if the incidents took place before the age of 18, the sources said.
An FBI spokesperson confirmed that some changes to the eligibility requirements have taken place, but claimed they are limited to a narrow set of circumstances, such as cases where a person was sexually abused with animals as a child.
“Any polygraph changes reflect a clear difference between a disqualified applicant who has engaged in criminal behavior, versus an applicant who may be subject to further evaluation based on rare exigent circumstances,” the spokesperson said.
Sources told CBS News that the new eligibility requirements do not distinguish between candidates who were coerced into sexual activity with animals and those who engaged in such acts willingly.
Former FBI agent James Davidson, who now leads the nonprofit FBI Integrity Project, opposed changing this standard. “Bestiality is clearly a potential indication of a more serious emotional issue, and even in a circumstance where it is not, the pool of candidates should be extensive enough that the criteria should certainly not be eliminated,” he said.
An archived FBI webpage from 2023 on special agent hiring requirements listed “engagement in prostitution or bestiality” as automatic disqualifiers. A similar document on general eligibility rules currently posted on the FBI website contains no references to bestiality or prostitution as disqualifying, CBS News reported.
One of the sources said the idea behind some of the new guidelines is to consider the whole person rather than automatically disqualifying someone based on one factor. Current and former FBI employees have expressed concern that the changes could lead the bureau to hire people with questionable backgrounds. They said it could raise issues about the integrity of agents who investigate crimes such as human trafficking because those agents often have to testify in court.
The FBI’s new policy also runs counter to an April 2015 memo issued to all Justice Department staff that prohibited the solicitation of prostitution. A DOJ spokesperson confirmed the memo remains in effect.
“This rule applies at all times during an individual’s employment, including while off duty or on personal leave, and applies regardless of whether the activity is legal or tolerated in a particular jurisdiction, foreign or domestic,” the Holder memo states. The memo added that soliciting sex “invites extortion, blackmail and leaks of sensitive or classified information” and “undermines the department’s efforts to eradicate the scourge of human trafficking.”
Former FBI agents and attorneys who handle employment issues told CBS News the decision to lower the standards could lead the bureau to hire people with a history of aberrant behavior and points to broader challenges in recruiting qualified applicants. “If they are lowering standards, it means the pool of candidates has sufficiently shrunk,” Davidson said.
Washington lawyer Mark Zaid, who represents FBI agents, said, “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.”
In a statement, an FBI spokesperson denied that the bureau is allowing people who have a history of criminal sexual acts to work there and said the FBI “has and always will maintain some of the highest suitability standards for its applicants and employees in the U.S. government.”
“Over the years, the FBI has had a number of applicants who suffered sexual abuse in their past, causing polygraph questions about prostitution, bestiality, or other similar issues to affect their polygraph through zero fault of their own,” the spokesperson said.
FBI Director Kash Patel has not publicly acknowledged the specific changes on prostitution or bestiality. In a July 27 video interview with former FBI agent John Nantz, Patel discussed efforts to overhaul older hiring standards.
“We are losing too many qualified candidates to the rigors of the requirements from yesteryear,” he said. Patel has also offered claims about modernizing the FBI. “We’ve never had recruiting numbers and application numbers this high in the history of the bureau. We’re not reducing our standards, we’re actually making it harder. You’ve got to be fit to be an FBI agent.”
Former FBI analyst Philip Fields reviewed government personnel data and found that in 2025 alone, the FBI lost 1,139 special agents, with an average tenure of 21.8 years. The FBI says it employs around 13,700 agents.
Stacey Young, a former Justice Department attorney who now runs the nonprofit advocacy group Justice Connection, said the DOJ has struggled to fill positions after driving out thousands of career employees. Separate reporting has described criticism of settlements to former agents.
Last year, The New York Times reported that the FBI was lowering other hiring standards, including reducing training at Quantico from 18 weeks to eight weeks. Patel said the FBI will now consider candidates who have worked in law enforcement for one year after college, instead of two.
Published: Aug 29, 2026 09:30 am