Under Kash Patel, past misdeeds are no longer automatic FBI dealbreakers.
The bureau quietly loosened its hiring rules in June in an effort to boost recruitment after a wave of firings, resignations, and retirements during President Donald Trump’s second term, CBS News reported.
Under the new guidelines, applicants who have hired a prostitute, stolen from an employer, or engaged in bestiality or animal cruelty may still be eligible for FBI jobs—depending on when and under what circumstances the conduct occurred.
Multiple sources briefed on the matter told CBS that the bureau’s rules regarding applicants who have hired prostitutes would vary based on the circumstances.
Applicants may still be considered for employment if they hired a prostitute more than 10 years ago and did so less than three times. However, a person in a position of “trust” who did so would still be automatically ruled out. Those occupations include public safety, education, health, social work, finance, and law. The military is not included.
Regarding stealing from an employer, that must have occurred more than three years ago for candidates to still be considered for a job.
And as for bestiality and animal cruelty, those acts must have taken place before the applicant was 18 years old.
The Daily Beast has contacted the FBI for comment.
The FBI communicated the changes to personnel involved in vetting applicants through an internal memo dated June 16, according to CBS.
The bureau has defended the new rules as giving hiring officials more flexibility to evaluate unusual circumstances rather than automatically rejecting otherwise qualified candidates. For example, the FBI noted that an applicant may have paid for sex in a place where prostitution is legal, while some applicants may have been victims of sexual abuse involving animals.
The FBI pushed back on the characterization that it had simply lowered its hiring standards.
“It is false to suggest criminal behavior like this is no longer disqualifying at the FBI,” the bureau said in a statement to the AP, adding that “any applicant who has engaged in criminal sexual acts… would of course not be eligible for employment.”
The FBI described its background check process as “wide-ranging and extensive” and said it “has and always will maintain some of the highest suitability standards for its applicants and employees in the U.S. government.”
The FBI has been struggling to attract recruits while enduring significant personnel losses under Trump. CBS reported that 1,139 special agents left the bureau in 2025, while the agency currently has roughly 13,700 agents. Patel has argued that some longstanding hiring requirements unnecessarily eliminate potential recruits.
