FBI Director Kash Patel says bestiality is no longer necessarily a barrier to working at the bureau because he doesn’t want to discriminate against its victims.
Patel, 46, defended last month’s hiring changes Tuesday during a tense Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his performance during his second year on the job. He has also lifted an automatic ban on applicants who’ve hired sex workers or stolen from their employer.
Patel said the bureau dropped its default disqualifier for bestiality if the crime happened before the person was 18 because he doesn’t want to rule out hiring “victims who were trafficked” as a child into having sex with animals. The new wording does not distinguish between someone who was coerced and someone who acted willingly.
His defense of the move, which came up several times during the hearing, occasionally provoked confusion among senators—especially when Patel said the regulations had previously ruled out “any individual who participated on either side of it.”
“Either side of what, the bestiality?” Republican Sen. John Kennedy, 74, of Louisiana, asked the bureau chief. “So, you disqualified the animal?” Patel joked back that the bureau has “great canines, but we’re not going to disqualify them.”
The FBI director also faced scrutiny over President Donald Trump’s attempts to sow doubt ahead of midterms. The 80-year-old president, who denies he lost the 2020 presidential race, has sparked fears of interference in this November’s elections by claiming Democrats, who hold a 7-point lead, could only win if they cheat.
Patel repeatedly refused to rule out sending federal agents down to polling stations on Election Day. He told Sen. Peter Welch, 79, during a furious exchange with the Vermont Democrat that “election integrity is of paramount importance,” and that “this FBI will not shy away from that effort.”
Patel was similarly evasive about whether the bureau would look into this week’s bombshell report that one of the president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr., 48, funded his wedding in May with help from an oligarch connected to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I’m not sure what public reporting you are referring to,” Patel said of revelations that had, by that stage, already dominated the headlines for two days. He then spoke at length about an increase in the number of counterespionage arrests under his leadership.
The Daily Beast has contacted the FBI for comment on this story.
