U.S. Senator (D-IL); Ranking Member, Senate Judiciary Committee.
Case
FBI Director Kash Patel defended the bureau's removal of automatic hiring disqualifiers for prostitution, employee theft, and bestiality, saying it protects trafficking victims. Sen. Dick Durbin and former FBI official Andrew McCabe publicly disputed that framing.
Role at the time: U.S. Senator (D-IL); Ranking Member, Senate Judiciary Committee
Response to this claim
The FBI’s hiring-standards change removes automatic disqualification for applicants who themselves engaged in the disqualifying conduct, not only for victims of it, contrary to Patel’s "victims" framing.
“You dropped automatic disqualification for applicants who have been engaged in bestiality, not victims of bestiality – applicants who have engaged.”
Durbin directly rejects Patel’s characterization of the policy on its face, stating the rule removes disqualification for people who "have engaged" in the conduct, not only victims, an express criticism of both the policy and Patel’s defense of it.
Role at the time: U.S. Senator (D-IL); Ranking Member, Senate Judiciary Committee, writing on behalf of nine Democratic co-signers
Statement summary
Ten Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats, led by Sen. Dick Durbin, sent a letter to Patel calling the FBI’s hiring-standards changes "not minor technical adjustments" and demanding records.
“Not minor technical adjustments.”
The letter directly denounces the changes as "not minor technical adjustments" and demands accountability — an express institutional criticism, distinct in date and mode from Durbin’s hearing-testimony rebuttal the next day.
Statement dates: September 14, 2026 to September 15, 2026
