Kash Patel defends FBI hiring rule change on trafficking victims
FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday defended changes to the bureau's hiring rules that removed automatic disqualification in some cases involving past acts of prostitution and bestiality, saying the move was meant to protect victims who had been forced into such conduct. He told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that the changes were not a lowering of standards but a way to allow the FBI to consider the context in individual cases.
The issue emerged during a tense oversight hearing that also brought fresh criticism of Patel's leadership from Democrats, while Republicans sought to keep the focus on violent crime, drug trafficking and the Trump administration's priorities at the FBI.
The FBI quietly issued guidance this spring lifting a categorical hiring ban on applicants who had previously engaged in prostitution, saying it would instead consider the context of the behaviour in at least some cases. The bureau made a similar change in relation to bestiality.
Asked about the changes, Patel said they were designed to ensure that victims were not automatically barred from employment. "We did not want to punish victims of bestiality, victims who were trafficked. We did not want to make it an automatic disqualification for the FBI to consider you," Patel said.
Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana strongly questioned the rationale for the change, which Patel said had been proposed by subordinates. "When you saw bestiality, I say this with respect: The person who recommended it, why didn't you just say what planet did you parachute in from?" Kennedy asked.
Patel replied that this had been his initial reaction as well, but that he later came to see the change as a way of supporting victims.
The Republican-led panel tried to keep attention on Patel's efforts to tackle violent crime, counter drug trafficking and advance the Trump administration's agenda at the FBI. But Democrats focused on upheaval inside the bureau over the past year, including sweeping firings of agents involved in investigations into President Donald Trump, efforts by the FBI to investigate Trump's perceived political opponents, and Patel's travel schedule, which they said mixed private leisure with official responsibilities.
In his opening statement, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the panel's top Democrat, said, "Mr Patel is the least qualified and most partisan FBI director in our nation's history." He accused Patel of using the bureau's law enforcement powers to seek retribution against Trump's political opponents and to pursue the president's grievances, including his false claims that the 2020 election he lost was stolen.
Patel has appeared before Congress several times as FBI director, including to testify on the bureau's budget, but this was his first appearance since last September before the Senate committee with primary oversight of the FBI. That earlier hearing included sharp personal exchanges with Democrats, with Patel at one point shouting over Senator Adam Schiff of California as he called him an "utter disgrace" and a "coward".
Schiff replied, "You can make an internet troll the FBI director, but he will always be an internet troll." Tuesday's hearing was expected to be similarly contentious as Democrats continued to attack Patel's conduct and leadership.
Durbin had called for Patel to be replaced as director in April after an article in The Atlantic raised allegations of excessive drinking. Patel later filed a USD 250 million defamation lawsuit, calling the article false and a "malicious hit piece". The Atlantic said it stood by its reporting and would vigorously defend against the "meritless lawsuit".
In Tuesday's hearing, Patel defended the FBI's hiring policy changes as a measure to avoid penalising victims, even as senators used the session to revisit broader concerns over his leadership, the bureau's direction and the controversies surrounding his tenure.
