Durbin Asks DOJ IG To Investigate FBI’s Decision To Modify Hiring Standards

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today sent a letter to Don Berthiaume, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General (IG), requesting that he investigate the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) decision to modify the hiring standards that govern the FBI’s workforce by removing theft from an employer, sex solicitation, and bestiality from its list of automatic hiring disqualifications. In June, the FBI reportedly made these revisions to their hiring policy; however, some of these changes may have been quietly implemented as early as February 2025.

“These changes threaten to undermine the work of the FBI and pose a grave risk to the Bureau’s integrity,” Durbin wrote.

In his letter, Durbin noted that Republican and Democratic Senators questioned FBI Director Kash Patel about this policy change and its application during his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 15, 2026, but Patel’s responses did little to clarify the purpose or effects of these changes.

Durbin wrote, “Director Patel stated that these changes were made to allow victims of these acts to apply to the FBI if they had been forced to commit one of those acts against their will. However, this explanation appears to contradict the actual effect of the changes, which removed the restrictions outright without differentiating between victim and perpetrator. Changes of this magnitude with no discernible justification must be scrutinized.”

Durbin then went on to ask that the DOJ IG’s office investigate the circumstances around the development and implementation of these policy changes with seven specific requests.

Before Patel’s oversight hearing last month, Durbin led all Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats in a letter to Patel demanding answers about the FBI’s decision to gut hiring standards. The Committee has yet to receive a response to this request.

Full text of today’s letter is available here and below:

October 9, 2026

Dear Inspector General Berthiaume:

I write to request that you investigate the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) decision to modify the hiring standards that govern the FBI’s workforce by removing theft from an employer, sex solicitation, and bestiality from its list of automatic hiring disqualifications.

In June 2026, the FBI reportedly issued an internal directive removing these restrictions, and some of these changes may have been implemented as early as February 2025. These changes threaten to undermine the work of the FBI and pose a grave risk to the Bureau’s integrity—in the case of solicitation of prostitution for example, controlling Department of Justice policy describes it as “threaten[ing] the core mission of the Department, not simply because it invites extortion, blackmail, and leaks of sensitive or classified information, but also because it undermines the Department’s efforts to eradicate the scourge of human trafficking.”

Republican and Democratic Senators questioned Director Kash Patel about this policy change and its application during his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 15, 2026, but Director Patel’s responses did little to clarify the purpose or effects of these changes. Director Patel stated that these changes were made to allow victims of these acts to apply to the FBI if they had been forced to commit one of those acts against their will. However, this explanation appears to contradict the actual effect of the changes, which removed the restrictions outright without differentiating between victim and perpetrator.

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, including:

• The number of applicants hired, extended conditional offers, or placed under case-by-case review since June 16, 2026, whose files would previously have been automatically disqualified for theft from an employer or engagement in prostitution or bestiality, broken out by category of conduct;
• The number of applicants hired, extended conditional offers, or placed under case-by-case review since February 28, 2025, whose files would previously have been automatically disqualified for theft from an employer or engagement in prostitution or bestiality, broken out by category of conduct;
• Any analysis the Bureau conducted, before or after February 28, 2025, of the effect these changes could have on courtroom credibility, counterintelligence exposure, or blackmail vulnerability among personnel hired under them;
• Why the FBI made these changes, what process was followed to make the changes, and who was involved in this process;
• All guidance issued to background investigators, polygraph examiners, and adjudicators instructing them on how to apply the revised standards;
• Whether these policies were changed in order to employ a specific applicant or applicants who otherwise would have been barred from serving in the FBI; and
• Whether these changes equally to the victims of this conduct or those who were coerced to participate in this conduct, and those who willingly participated in soliciting sex or committing an act of bestiality.

Please contact my office for any additional information you may need to investigate this matter. Thank you for your attention to this request.

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