‘What planet did you parachute in from?’: Kennedy mocks Kash Patel over FBI bestiality policy

FBI Director Kash Patel faced a different kind of tough questioning during a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

Both Democrats and Republicans confronted him over new, controversial FBI guidelines for potential applicants.

As reported here on Dagens.com, Patel and the FBI decided at the end of August that prostitution and bestiality were no longer automatic disqualifications for potential new FBI recruits.

Summoned to the Senate

Republican Senator John Kennedy pressed the bureau chief on the change of policy. He argued that it has damaged the FBI’s reputation.

“I’m trying to understand why you did this,” Kennedy told Patel. “We’re having a tough time attracting agents, good quality agents we all can trust … Why would you even get into bestiality?”

Patel defended the rule update, explaining that it targeted cases involving human trafficking. He argued that the bureau “did not want to punish victims of bestiality” by shutting them out automatically.

A heated debate

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin pushed back against Patel’s reasoning. He noted that the new internal guidelines appeared to cover people who carried out the act themselves, rather than focusing purely on victims.

Patel stood by his own interpretation during the exchange. “Applicants who have engaged in bestiality means they were victims of bestiality because they were forced to do so,” Patel said.

Kennedy trashed Patel over his peculiar interpretation of his own policy change. “I say this with respect to the person who recommended it, why didn’t you just say: ‘What planet did you parachute in from?’” Kennedy asked Patel rhetorically.

The Louisiana senator later poked fun at the situation, asking whether the decision “disqualified the animal” from service.

A new policy change to attract recruits

The revised policy changes allow the FBI to potentially hire candidates who stole, hired sex workers, or engaged in bestiality, provided the incidents occurred before age 18 or involved coercion. Those were previously automatic disqualifications if a person wanted to work for the bureau.

An FBI spokesperson stated that the agency will rely on new polygraph updates instead of the old policy. “Any polygraph changes reflect a clear difference between a disqualified applicant who has engaged in criminal behavior, versus an applicant who may be subject to further evaluation based on rare exigent circumstances,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Patel told Kennedy that advisers brought him specific examples. “They showed me cases in which people were forced into it and had applied to the FBI, and so I thought: ‘They should be considered. It’s not an automatic disqualification.’ That’s all,” Patel said.

This article is made and published by Daniel Wolfram, who may have used AI in the preparation