Sen. Dick Durbin calls Patel "the least qualified and most partisan FBI director" in U.S. history
The FBI no longer automatically disqualifies job applicants who engaged in acts of bestiality before the age of 18 — a change Director Kash Patel spent part of Tuesday defending to Illinois' senior senator, Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In his opening statement, Durbin called Patel "the least qualified and most partisan FBI director" in the nation's history, accusing him of aiming the bureau's law enforcement powers at President Trump's political opponents and at the president's grievances, including his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
CBS News first reported the changes in August, based on a June 16 internal memo sent to the personnel who run background checks. The memo also lifted the automatic bar on applicants who had stolen from an employer more than three years earlier, and on those who had paid for sex fewer than three times and more than a decade ago.
"We did not want to punish victims of bestiality, victims who were trafficked," Patel told Durbin, saying the intent was to avoid shutting out people who had been coerced or trafficked. He denied that any of it amounted to lowering the bureau's employment standards.
But sources told CBS News in August that the revised requirements do not distinguish between candidates who were coerced into sexual activity with animals and those who took part willingly.
Patel did not explain why the bureau also eased its standards for candidates who may have stolen from previous employers.
Durbin pressed Patel on his spending, pointing to a private letter the committee's Republican chairman, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, sent Patel in May. Durbin said Grassley sought information about Patel's use of the FBI jet, the bureau's purchase of BMWs and whether Patel had reimbursed taxpayers for his travel.
Congressional Democrats have questioned Patel's use of a government plane for personal travel for more than a year. This year, he flew on a Justice Department jet to Italy, where he celebrated with members of the U.S. men's hockey team after it won gold at the Winter Olympics. The FBI has said directors are required to travel on government aircraft for security reasons and has called the Italy trip work-related.
The hiring rules were one of several fronts senators opened Tuesday. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar pressed Patel on the federal investigations into the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Durbin called for Patel to be replaced in April, after The Atlantic published allegations of frequent drinking and absences from the job. Patel sued the magazine for defamation that month, seeking $250 million and calling the article false and fabricated. The Atlantic has said it stands by the reporting and will fight the suit.