Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, grilled FBI Director Kash Patel on an interesting change to the bureau’s hiring rules.
The director has come under scrutiny for loosening the rules, and sat down before the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer questions. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, accused Patel of having “turned it upside down” but he insists there was a good reason to remove automatic disqualification from those to admit to have stolen from an employer, paid for sex, or engaged in animal cruelty or bestiality.
Kennedy was direct in his questioning:
PATEL: The previous regulation automatically disqualified any individual who participated in either side of it
KENNEDY: Either side of beastiality? So you disqualified the animal?
PATEL: Well, we have great canines, but we’re not going to disqualify them
KENNEDY: I’m trying to… pic.twitter.com/I2oJH6XKJf
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 15, 2026
“Okay, what about the bestiality?” he asked.
“Same thing, because the regs wrote it up in a fashion before I arrived that addressed prostitution, bestiality and trafficking. They were there before I got there,” Patel explained.
“Tell me what it said before,” Kennedy said.
“It automatically disqualified any individual who participated on either side of it. Obviously, we are never going to hire the criminal,” the director responded.
“Side of what? The bestiality?” the senator asked.
“Yes,” Patel confirmed.
“So you disqualified the animal?” a visibly bewildered Kennedy pressed.
“Well, I don’t think… We have great canines, but we’re not going to-” Patel jokingly started to say before the senator butted in, getting to the real line of questioning.
“I understand. I’m trying to understand why you did this. This is not directed at you, Mr. Director. And I understand the game. People try to make you look bad. We do the same thing when the other party is in office and all of this stuff has really hurt the FBI, it’s really hurt the FBI. So I’m trying to get to the bottom of this,” Kennedy clarified. “Why would you, in light of the context and what we’re going through, we’re having a tough time attracting agents, good quality agents we all can trust because so many people, fairly or unfairly, think that in order to be an FBI agent now, your political point of view matters. Why would you even get into bestiality?
“We are not into bestiality, but a lot of these individuals-” Patel began.
“I know you’re not, but you changed, you changed-” Kennedy argued.
“But I’m trying to explain it,” Patel pushed back.
“You changed the qualifications and mentioned bestiality. If, Joe, if Joe participated in bestiality, not as the animal, but as the human, don’t you think he ought to be disqualified?” Kennedy asked.
“If he voluntarily did it? Sure. But if he was trafficked into it…” Patel said before being interrupted again.
“Okay, how do you involuntarily do it?”
“In a lot of these cases, when human traffickers, who are some of the worst individuals on planet Earth, they don’t just traffic you for prostitution; they traffic you for degrading acts of all kind, and they force you into that type of conduct. And some of these individuals would go on to be law enforcement officers who qualified to be law enforcement officers and later applied to the FBI,” the director explained.
“These changes didn’t start with you did they? Somebody came to you and recommended?” Kennedy clarified.
“Yes,” Patel confirmed.
“And 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? Why do I want to lead with my chin and get into bestiality?'” Kennedy continued to press.
“That was my initial response, senator,” Patel admitted. “But they then explained to me and showed me cases in which people were forced into it and had applied to the FBI, and so I thought they should be considered.”
“But you’re not telling us today that if a human being had sex with an animal, that they can still be an FBI agent? In fact, they ought to be in jail, right?” Kennedy asked.
“They all are,” Patel said.
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Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to write. Marlee also contributes to BizPac Review.
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