Kash Patel Quietly Killed the FBI Rule That Barred People Who’ve Engaged in Bestiality from Becoming Agents

15 Sep 2026, 18:00 · Thought Catalog

ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP via Getty Images

Updated 2 minutes ago, September 15, 2026

During a September 15 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, FBI director Kash Patel was asked why he changed a rule that had disqualified people who have engaged in bestiality from becoming federal agents.

FBI Director Kash Patel faces senators at a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on Capitol Hill on September 15, 2026. Photo by Win McNamee / Getty Images.

Patel explained that the previous screening system disqualified anyone involved in bestiality, prostitution, or trafficking “on either side of it.”

That framing makes sense for prostitution and trafficking, where there’s a buyer and a seller. But it’s less clear why bestiality was folded into the same change — after all, what exactly is “the other side” of bestiality? Sen. John Kennedy pushed on that very point, asking, “So you disqualified the animal?”

A Capitol Police officer and K-9 patrol the east front of the U.S. Capitol on January 16, 2021, days before Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration. Photo by Samuel Corum / Getty Images.

“We have great K-9s, but we’re not gonna disqualify,” Patel replied. When Kennedy pressed him to explain the reasoning behind the change, Patel said someone could be considered a victim of bestiality if they were forced to participate.

A Chicago investigator works with a dog at a northwest-side residence tied to suspected murderer Bart Ross on March 10, 2005, days after Ross died by suicide during a Wisconsin traffic stop. Photo by Scott Olson / Getty Images.

The revised rules go further than that, though. They also relax the previous automatic disqualification for candidates who bought sex workers or even trafficked them. As long as the offense happened more than 10 years ago, didn’t occur while the person was in a position of power (such as a police officer), and happened fewer than three times, that person can still become an FBI agent.

FBI Director Kash Patel faces senators at a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on September 15, 2026. Photo by Win McNamee / Getty Images.

The new exception extends to animal cruelty as well — meaning people who have inflicted unnecessary pain and suffering on animals can now become federal agents, provided the cruelty occurred before they turned 18.

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