Kash Patel Doubles Down On Defending FBI Bestiality Hiring Policy

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel continues to defend the bureau’s bestiality hiring policy while facing bipartisan criticism on Capitol Hill.

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Patel has doubled down on defending the policy after the FBI revised its hiring standards in June, allowing some applicants with past involvement in prostitution, employer theft, bestiality, or animal cruelty to remain eligible under certain circumstances, according to a CBS News report.

The policy change came under scrutiny Tuesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, where Democratic Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin pressed Patel on the rationale behind the revised standards. (RELATED: ‘Not Going To Take This Laying Down’: Kash Patel Announces Move Against Media Hit Piece)

“What I am reading to you is that you dropped the qualification for applicants who have been engaged in bestiality, not victims of bestiality; applicants who have engaged. Do you disagree with that?” Durbin asked Patel.

Patel pushed back.

“Applicants who have engaged in bestiality means they were victims of bestiality because they were forced to do so,” Patel said. “At this FBI, we are not going to criminalize and prevent victims from serving the United States of America and the premier law enforcement agency in the world.”

“They did that before. I eliminated the bureaucracy that prevented these great Americans from serving, or at least being considered for serving, and I am going to continue to do that,” Patel added.

Durbin responded that Patel had “turned it upside down”

The policy change was not discussed only once during the hearing.

Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy also pressed Patel on the FBI’s decision to remove bestiality from its list of automatic hiring disqualifications.

“What about the bestiality?” Kennedy asked.

“Same thing, because the regs [regulators] wrote it up in a fashion before I arrived that addressed prostitution, bestiality and trafficking. They were there before I got there,” Patel responded.

Kennedy then asked Patel to explain what the policy said before the change. Patel said it “automatically disqualified any individual who participated on either side of it. Obviously, we are never going to hire the criminal…”

“The side of what? The bestiality?” Kennedy interjected.

“Yes,” Patel answered.

“So you disqualified the animal?” Kennedy asked. (REPORT: John Kennedy Asks Kash Patel Point-Blank If Jeffrey Epstein Killed Himself)

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The FBI Director laughed before responding, “Well, we have great K-9s, but we’re not going to disqualify.”

Kennedy then clarified that he was trying to understand the rationale behind the change, particularly as the FBI faces challenges recruiting qualified agents. He said he understood that people were trying to “make people like Patel look bad,” but argued that the policy had generated unnecessary scrutiny for the bureau.

Kennedy later pressed Patel on the distinction between voluntary and involuntary conduct.

“How do you involuntarily do it?” Kennedy asked.

Patel explained that human traffickers, whom he called “some of the worst individuals on planet earth,” can force victims into degrading acts beyond prostitution.

“They don’t just traffic you for prostitution; they traffic you for degrading acts of all kinds, and they force you into that type of conduct,” Patel said. “And some of these individuals go on to be law enforcement officers who qualified to be law enforcement officers and later applied to the FBI.”

The exchange comes after a report Friday detailing FOIA records that appear to show FBI Director Kash Patel directing his public affairs team to identify social media accounts criticizing him and respond by highlighting the bureau’s “record year results.” (RELATED: FOIA Records Appear To Reveal Kash Patel’s Priority Is Tracking Down His Critics)

In a Feb. 5 exchange, Patel pushed back after an aide characterized one account as an “Epstein didn’t kill himself bot account” and disputed the account’s reach.

The aide later warned Patel that responding to the account would “look bad on you,” while Patel maintained that the focus should be on reaching the hundreds of thousands of people who had viewed the criticism.

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