Durbin asks watchdog to probe new FBI hiring standards on bestiality, prostitution

Washington — The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday asked the Justice Department's internal watchdog to investigate why the FBI lowered its hiring standards for candidates who may have engaged in bestiality, prostitution or employment theft.

In a letter to Justice Department Inspector General Don Berthiaume, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin said the lowering of the FBI's hiring standards "threaten[s] to undermine the work of the FBI and pose a grave risk to the Bureau's integrity."

CBS News first reported in August that the FBI quietly lowered its hiring standards in June, marking an abrupt shift from prior practice.

Previously, anyone who engaged in acts of bestiality, prostitution or stole from an employer was automatically precluded from working at the bureau.

Now, under the new standards, a person who engaged in acts of bestiality, animal cruelty or animal "crush" before the age of 18 can still be considered for an FBI job.

For prostitution, job applicants will not be automatically disqualified as long as they have not hired sex workers three or more times and as long as the act took place more than 10 years ago.

The new guidelines also allow the FBI to consider hiring job candidates who stole from their employers, as long as the theft took place more than three years prior.

In an extraordinary hearing last month, FBI Director Kash Patel appeared to struggle to defend the changes to the new policy, telling lawmakers that it was aimed at ensuring that sexual assault victims who were forced to have sex with animals would not be precluded from employment at the bureau.

His exchange with Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana has since become the topic of comedy shows and countless internet memes. Patel told the lawmaker that the prior hiring policy on bestiality "automatically disqualified any individual who participated on either side of it."

"Either side of what, the bestiality?" Kennedy said, later asking: "So you disqualified the animal?"

Current and former FBI agents and legal experts familiar with the bureau's hiring practices previously told CBS News they were deeply troubled by the changes, saying they were indicative of challenges the FBI may be having with recruiting new talent.

Several also said they were baffled by how the bureau was justifying the shift, noting that all applicants have an opportunity to disclose personal issues that could impact the results of their polygraph prior to taking the test, such as a history of sexual abuse.

"Director Patel's responses did little to clarify the purpose or effects of these changes," Durbin wrote in his letter to the inspector general.

"Changes of this magnitude with no discernible justification must be scrutinized. I ask that your office investigate the circumstances around the development and implementation of these policy changes," he added.

Watch: Kennedy grills Patel in tense exchange on bestiality and FBI hiring rules