Kash Patel: hiring-standards change protects "victims of bestiality, victims who were trafficked"
FBI Director
“We did not want to punish victims of bestiality, victims who were trafficked... Applicants who have engaged in bestiality means they were victims of bestiality because they were forced to do so.”
Source and context
Reporting
About this source
Fullest account of the Sen. John Kennedy–Patel exchange at the hearing.
Reporting
About this source
Clearest account of the Durbin/Patel disagreement over whether the "victims" framing accurately describes the policy, and the fullest quoted FBI spokesperson statement.
Reporting
About this source
Same-day broadcast transcript containing verbatim video-clip transcriptions of the hearing exchange plus a full on-air interview with Andrew McCabe. Marked by CNN as a rush transcript that "may not be in its final form."
Before the quotation
Questioned by Sens. Durbin and Kennedy at the September 15, 2026 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about the FBI’s removal of automatic hiring disqualifiers for prostitution, employee theft, and bestiality.
After the quotation
Sen. Durbin directly disputed this framing in the same exchange (see related statement).
How this statement is classified
Responding to: The FBI’s hiring-standards change was designed to protect trafficking and sexual-abuse victims from automatic disqualification, and does not admit applicants who voluntarily engaged in the disqualifying conduct.
The label describes this statement’s response within the context above.
Why this label?
Patel directly argues the policy change is justified: it exists to avoid punishing trafficking and abuse victims, not to permit voluntary misconduct, an express defense of the conduct under scrutiny (the policy change).
- Recorded on
- Published here
Kash Patel defends FBI’s removal of automatic hiring disqualifiers for bestiality, prostitution, and employee theft
Explore the case context, sources and public responses.
More from this case
Read the full case“In 21 years in the FBI, this issue never came up... the fact that the director is using this as a way to kind of soften the blow... is not entirely believable in my estimation. The idea that the FBI director would put his own credibility and judgment on the line over something as esoteric and irrelevant as protecting victims of bestiality who might happen to want to work for the FBI is really unconscionable to me.”Read statement
“Why would you even get into bestiality?... So you disqualified the animal?... But you’re not telling us today that if a human being had sex with an animal, they can still be an FBI agent?”Read statement
“You dropped automatic disqualification for applicants who have been engaged in bestiality, not victims of bestiality – applicants who have engaged.”Read statement