Bestiality, Hiring Prostitutes And Other Illegal Acts No Longer Automatic Disqualifiers For FBI Applicants

The FBI has quietly stripped prostitution, bestiality and employer theft from the list of offenses that once ended a job application on the spot.

Read more Fans Fear For Gladys Knight After Alarming On-Stage Appearance

The revised standards reached the personnel who run background checks through a June 16 internal memo known as an electronic communication, according to CBS News. A candidate who paid for sex can now stay in contention as long as the conduct happened fewer than three times and fell outside the previous decade.

Theft from an employer no longer triggers automatic rejection once three years have passed, CBS News reported. Acts of bestiality or animal cruelty may be excused if they occurred before the applicant turned 18. (RELATED: Is Kash Patel Delivering On Trump’s Promise To Clean House At FBI?)

One carve-out survived the loosening. Applicants who solicited sex while holding a position of trust still face automatic disqualification, a category that covers public safety, education, health, social work, finance and law, according to CBS News.

The bureau rejected any suggestion that it had opened its doors to criminals. “It is false to suggest criminal behavior like this is no longer disqualifying at the FBI. Any applicant who has engaged in criminal sexual acts like those referenced would of course not be eligible for employment, and it is ridiculous to suggest otherwise,” the FBI said in a statement reported by the Associated Press (AP). The bureau tied the change to service members and others who may have paid for sex where it was legal.

Read more Tech Bros Crying To White House Over Potential Trump Move

The relaxed rules arrived as the bureau bled personnel. Former FBI analyst Philip Fields counted 1,139 special agents gone in 2025, according to CBS News. The agency employs roughly 13,700 agents.

Critics read the move as evidence of a thin recruiting field. “If they’re moving the bar for sexual encounters to include prostitution, what is that saying about the applicant pool,” said Daniel Brunner, a retired agent of two decades, in comments reported by the AP.

The changes follow a run of eased requirements under FBI Director Kash Patel. Reuters reported in February that Patel planned to drop a panel interview and a writing test for staff seeking agent roles. A 2015 memo from then-Attorney General Eric Holder barring the solicitation of prostitution remains in force, according to the AP.

Read more More Than A Dozen Sheriff’s Offices Sue Governor Over Law Prohibiting Them From Cooperating With ICE