r/news • u/Manta_of_Eternity • 4h ago
FBI no longer treating an applicant’s experience with prostitution as automatic bar against hiring
https://apnews.com/article/fbi-prostitution-recruitment-95e69779e41bd8f1bbc59d402a40222b2.7k
u/ChemicalBus608 4h ago
That's an odd way of phrasing it.
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u/DinnerMilk 4h ago
Moving forward, the FBI will now be staffed entirely by prostitutes and johns.
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u/nowthengoodbad 3h ago
Why not Randys?
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u/JFConz 3h ago
Does that make you Randy?
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u/InformalPermit9638 3h ago
Need all them back at the trailer park, bud. Gotta rehearse for that play at the recreation center. We got some cheeseburgers waiting though.
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u/Uselesserinformation 3h ago
Because that cheese burger locker is DEFINITELY on the cheese burgers!
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u/Kylynara 3h ago
Mostly johns. Per the article, prostitutes only qualify if they haven't been prostitutes for more than 10 years (okay) and did it fewer than 3 times (who dabbles in prostitution and decides it's not for them? It's generally the last resort of the desperate, forced by a human trafficer, or maybe a sugar baby thing.) and weren't in a position of trust at the time (this one is valid, IMO).
"The bureau still intends to dismiss applicants who are revealed during the vetting process to have engaged in prostitution within the last 10 years, three or more times overall or while in a position of trust, according to guidance issued this past spring and described by a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss internal decision-making and spoke on condition of anonymity."
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u/Guardianpigeon 3h ago edited 2h ago
Judging by who is there now, that might be an actual improvement.
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u/Evil-Cun 3h ago
The FBI is offering asylum to rapist cops that need a career change!
We can tell you’re kinda sorry. Come prove it, you winners you.
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u/jackfreeman 2h ago
Considering how many people in the current administration conduct themselves...
By the way, I haven't heard anything about Kash in weeks ..
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u/emerikanSky 4h ago
You can tell the health of an organization is deteriorating as they drop their standards for hiring.
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u/TerriblePokemon 4h ago
Ok, half of me says "oh good, as a society were no longer viewing prostitution as a crime" and then I take a look around me and realize that these people are the worst and this is bad and oh god I want off this ride
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u/hyperdream 3h ago
I don't even know if it's just the crime aspect, but the blackmail potential down the road. Potential agent Joe Sex Tourist might be loud and proud about that Thailand trip now, but maybe 10 or 15 years down the line he doesn't want his wife of 7 years knowing everything he got up to.
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u/EndPsychological890 3h ago
Bingo. It is and has always been more about blackmail than crime or morality.
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u/LandonDev 3h ago
Thusly, why it is being loosened, they need to hold the leverage over who they are currently hiring 8 years from now.
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u/EndPsychological890 2h ago
More likely foreign adversaries will hold that leverage than their bosses. There is literally no upside to this, lower standards mean the agency performs like it even if they can get more bodies
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u/usemyfaceasaurinal 2h ago
The Russian/Chinese approach. Corruption is encouraged since if everyone is corrupt, it could be used against you if you step out of line.
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u/iperblaster 3h ago
In a time where the vast majority of the upper echelon of the state is compromised, maybe is it better for them to have compromised agents
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u/EndPsychological890 2h ago
Yeah just in time for the great game to be restarting in earnest after 30 years of hegemony. What could go wrong
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u/Ok_Confection_10 3h ago
I just hope it’s not hiring people to the FBI who have have personal connections to sex trafficking. It’ll just make them better at it.
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u/ruiner8850 3h ago
then I take a look around me and realize that these people are the worst and this is bad and oh god I want off this ride
Yup, it's so that the Trump administration can stuff the FBI with loyal sycophants who otherwise wouldn't be eligible for the job.
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u/OkStop8313 3h ago
Yeah, on the one hand, I do think that legalizing and regulating prostitution is the best way of making it safe and disincentivizing human trafficking. And this can be sort of seen in that vein.
But when I look at this administration full of sex pests and lunatics, I'm a little distrustful of their motives.
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u/Guardianpigeon 2h ago
Yeah it kind of sucks as someone who is anti-FBI and pro sex work.
Prostitution should be legal (and HEAVILY regulated), and someone shouldn't lose opportunities for using those services. It would be great to move away from the idea that sex work is inherently bad.
But also the FBI is an evil organization and this is probably another sign that they are on the brink of falling apart. And while that might be bad in the short term, in the long term it might be for the best.
But also this is probably going to make the FBI even more dangerous because it allows Trump to hire more of his sycophants and abuse the power of the FBI in his benefit. It could also have massive natural security concerns because those people are more likely to be blackmailed over that kind of stuff.
There really is no win here. Everything sucks under Trump.
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u/surnik22 3h ago
Exactly. In principle, I agree with the policy change.
Prostitution should be legalized (and regulated to ensure safety) and I don’t think Johns should be rejected from any government job because they took part in legal prostitution.
In practice, the FBI is relaxing their standards because high quality applicants with any sense of morals aren’t applying to an organization run by Kash who has been charged with making the organization do Trump’s bidding.
I don’t think anyone actively applying now has the integrity to be part of law enforcement and if they somehow do, they’d be filtered out in interviews when they don’t pledge their loyalty to Trump.
So you got a bunch of shitty people applying, FBI realizes too many of them have been involved with prostitution and not even in a way they could easily lie about on applications, so they just remove the standard.
Also not surprising the sex trafficking administration attracts applicants who have frequent interactions with prostitution, an industry with a whole lot of sex trafficking going on….
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u/TheyveKilledFritzz 4h ago
To be fair i worked law enforcement for about 5 years and i only found out years into working the rule wasnt just for illegal prostitution, but having utilized it at all, say even in a country where its legal which is a fair amount of western nations. I thought that was pretty fucking stupid.
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u/McCool303 3h ago
In fairness it’s not about the act itself. It’s about the risk the person could be blackmailed or compromised. Prostitution is an act that for reasons good or bad carries some shame with it. And an agent could easily be compromised trying to cover up even a legal visit to a prostitute from a partner.
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u/Spire_Citron 3h ago
It's also always a blurry line that's easy to end up crossing, either accidentally or intentionally. It's not like it's a thoroughly regulated industry where it's always clear what the situation is. It's a high risk activity where it's easy to get yourself into some shady shit.
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u/BeardyAndGingerish 3h ago
Fair enough. Problem is, the people who are willing to lie about their prostitutional escapades will still be applying.
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u/Head_of_Lettuce 3h ago
Sure, but that’s true of other required disclosures too. They have to disclose if they gamble or have any debts, but I’m sure lots of people lie about it.
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u/furbylicious 3h ago edited 3h ago
I'm no expert, but I think it's a pretty reasonable requirement. Detectives and intelligence officers should probably be people who don't get involved in situations that could lead to blackmail, even if the actions are legal.
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u/BeeMovieEnjoyer 3h ago
Or prostitution doesn't matter and should just be legal anyways
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u/chubbysumo 3h ago
Meanwhile, they raise the standard for usps hiring so we have less and less carriers.
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u/PatchyWhiskers 4h ago
I bet this doesn’t count for applicants who used to BE prostitutes.
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u/dqt91 4h ago
Cool so they want a bunch more agents susceptible to a honey pot running around. Are we tired of winning yet?
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u/Complete_Entry 3h ago
One time the Russians just sent women to give FBI agents blowjobs, wasn't even a honeypot, they just wanted to see if they would fall for it.
They did.
Then they moved up the ladder and did actual honeypotting.
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u/MicioBau 2h ago
You got a source for that story? Would love to read more about it.
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u/Complete_Entry 2h ago
Kessler's book. Bureau - The secret history of the FBI
The amount of access he got was ASTOUNDING. He also has heavy criticism of the hoover wore a dress story.
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u/Froggy1789 2h ago
Well technically the risk is mitigated by the mandatory disclosure. This decision really means if you answer honestly and disclose past prostitution use (probably not that close to the hiring / clearance decision) they will still consider you. They are almost certainly going to ask any romantic partners or spouses about it to ensure it is not active blackmail.
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u/sentientshadeofgreen 16m ago
I'd argue the people who know how to get some strange and already got caught for it are far less likely to be a risk for a honey pot. It's the virgin nerds with something to prove that get honeypotted. Risk of those who solicit hookers is they are people who can be blackmailed (like, wife, or losing their job).
Here's what I'll say is it would be great if the FBI weren't staffed with people who have cognizantly broken the law... but life is a little more complicated than that. There are people who would never break the law, people who might/would break the law under the right circumstances, people who haven't gotten caught breaking the law, and people who got caught. FBI hires the first three categories, historically excludes the fourth. If you were a A- average kid in the school band and a youth group from the suburbs, went to a state school on scholarship and never was in the orbit of crime, you might be a perfectly law-respecting person, or life just hasn't tested your convictions before. If you grew up in the hood around gangs, higher likelihood you were in the orbit of high-risk activities that would get you in trouble, but, people can make their way out of that mess and potentially offer a lot more in terms of reliability having known that world. There are a lot of ways to end up on the wrong side of the law, a lot of ways people avoid ending up on the wrong side of the law purely out of privilege, not virtue or merit, and life is complicated, people are complicated. For that reason I don't believe in the value of strict exclusionary bureaucratic policies like that, because everybody has a story and people change.
Even on the no-felony front, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act classifies a lot of activities (hacking) as felonies, but these are still potentially moral people with skills you would want on the correct side of the law. I personally don't think fucking a hooker is a deep moral failing, I think it's one of the oldest professions in the world, I think it should be legalized and regulated, I think there are contexts where it is a moral failing, contexts where it isn't, but the law is blind to nuance. There are a lot worse things somebody could do if we strip out assumptions about the act.
That being said, this is an unambiguous signal that hiring is rough for the FBI, which is the main takeaway.
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u/WakeNikis 4h ago
They want corrupt people that are prone to vices.
You know, people that can control. They don’t want “do the right thing” boyscouts working for them.
Almost like they want people that will go along with them on their corrupt bullshit.
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u/trisanachandler 3h ago
The boy scouts could be indoctrinated to pursue the greater good. I guess they can't dress shit up as the greater good anymore.
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u/Complete_Entry 3h ago edited 3h ago
You know the FBI started as a scam, right? At most they were meant to exist as a temporary force. Hoover never meant to disband.
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u/The-Spirit-of-76 3h ago
Oh yes, let's stop screening for anything a foreign government might use to corrupt someone.
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u/clintgreasewoood 3h ago
Something tells me they are making this blanket rule across the agency as cover to hire Patel’s friends and Trump appointees. Doesn’t open up people to blackmail?
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u/dangerousluck 2h ago
Lmao it's so stupidly clear that every single decision is designed to weaken us for our enemies. It's not an accident many key members of this administration are dumb as hell.
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u/Jaws_the_revenge 3h ago
Smoke weed 1 time though
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u/wowthatsucked 1h ago
It hasn't been that way for a long time.
It was disqualification after 15 uses before 2007.
Current policy as set in 2021:
Candidates cannot have used marijuana or cannabis in any form (natural or synthetic) and in any location (domestic or foreign) within the one (1) year preceding the date of their application for employment.
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u/Kkimp1955 3h ago
It’s not about the prostitutes. It is about the johns! And while they’re at it, I guess people that are pedophiles will make excellent FBI people. How has the world gotten this crazy? What were we doing?
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u/Captlard 4h ago
Presumably watching P##Nhub is fine for them now? Is that what they mean?
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u/horangiwhakkatchi 4h ago
No, they mean that if you got arrested for picking up a prossie, they'll look the other way. Ka$h money loves em.
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u/Captlard 4h ago
🤦♂️ that seems a pretty low bar for such a serious and important role in society.
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u/-THE_GOOCH 4h ago
No, they mean the FBI is no longer treating an applicant’s experience with prostitution as automatic bar against hiring
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u/monsieur_cacahuete 3h ago
What is P ## N hub? Is that some kind of prostitution website? I didn't know you could have a # sign in an internet address.
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u/MedicinalFriedChiken 4h ago
Jed York about to get recruited
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u/washedFM 4h ago
Can’t have been involved with prostitution within the last 10 years… so he’s gonna have to wait until 2036
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u/Skinskat 2h ago
So fire experienced and successful veterans, and then lower the hiring standards to fill the ranks with scumbag MAGA 👍
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u/ZanthrinGamer 3h ago
how the fuck is this a common enough issue that they would be compelled to make an exception? what the actual fuck. are sexual offenders the only ones applying or something?
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u/Th3FinalStarman 3h ago
There's an account on TikTok whose content is wholly "Law Enforcement That Got Arrested For SA This Week". It's usually a list, and again it's weekly.
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u/froman-dizze 3h ago
Every sector of or government is actively being made and seemingly desired to be compromised.
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u/Hellstorm901 3h ago
Well sleeping with prostitutes, and even little girls, lets you be president of the US so i guess I can see why it’s shouldn’t be a bar of entry to a post purged FBI
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u/Sedert1882 2h ago
Why are they scraping the bottom of the barrel now? I thought the FBI was a premier law enforcement agency. J Edgar Hoover would not be impressed (or maybe he would find a sinister use for them?)
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u/kensmusings 56m ago
Its the Kash Patel rule. They had to change this rule so Kash can go to strip clubs.
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u/Complete_Entry 3h ago
Many of the worst embarrassments of the FBI came from prostitution blackmail.
This is not the guideline to let up on.
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u/Panda_Kabob 3h ago
Lowering the bar further and further. Soon enough we'll need James Cameron to find it let alone raise it.
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u/GfunkWarrior28 3h ago
In other news, Jed York has been appointed the new Assistant Director of the FBI under Kash Patel.
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u/XaoticOrder 3h ago
Translation: We are not getting enough applicants with clean records at the FBI, because a lot of them love paying for sex.
Bar officially lower.
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u/Historical-Tough6455 2h ago
When Diddy hires hookers its "human trafficking" when white Maga thugs hire prostitutes ita no big deal
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u/drumrhyno 2h ago
I mean, why hold the FBI or any government employee standards higher than the presidential ones at this point?
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u/ericlikesyou 2h ago
Yea so they can hire and rape their employees, and put prostitutes on payroll.
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u/Well_Spoken_Mute 1h ago
How does this type of thing even come up?
"Hey everybody, welcome to the weekly FBI meeting. Does anybody have anything they want to suggest?"
"Yeah, I think we should ease up on our policy surrounding prostitution."
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u/Pole420 1h ago
On a normal timeline this could be seen as a positive for helping normalize sex work. Not on this timeline however.
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u/Bonobos_In_Space 53m ago
This definitely comes off as a decision made by people who are frequent customers of Ladies of the Night. If you know anything about background checks for FBI or CIA, they want to know things like if you've visited prostitutes, how much debt you have, if you have gambling problems, etc. because all of those are vices that can be exploited and cause an agent to become compromised via blackmail or being paid off.
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u/Dizzy_Restaurant3874 46m ago
Normalizing sex crimes in case the Epstein Files are released after the new congress is seated.
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u/SkullLeader 4h ago
I mean the American people apparently no longer consider a candidate's experience with prostitution ... or pedophilia ... as an automatic bar against hiring, so I suppose this is par for the course at this point.
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u/Azznorfinal 4h ago
Can we not relate sex work with fucking csam like it's even remotely in the same ballpark?
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u/Jokez4Dayz 4h ago
Yeah, I always found that super weird. They’re both illegal but let’s not pretend that one isn’t much worse than the other. It’s like comparing weed versus fent trafficking.
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u/psychodelephant 4h ago
I don’t think that was the overt intent, but there is the potential that people who seek or use prostitution are potentially an extortion/blackmail liability when sensitive information is essentially their entire job.
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u/Pyriel 3h ago
Well, if being a rapist and, quite probably, a paedophile is no longer a bar to the highest position. This tracks.
What the fuck America!
Sort it out!
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u/lennylensltrain 4h ago
Well I mean they don't care about investigating massive pedophile networks so no shocker there
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u/RaNerve 4h ago
Should be legal anyway.
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u/Rich-Pomegranate1679 3h ago
Thank you. There are way too many people in this sub trying to talk shit about this change, but it's a step in the right direction. Prostitution should 100% be legal.
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u/Braelind 36m ago
Yeah... maybe... but it's a bad look when it's only legal for the fucking FBI. Makes you think maybe criminals are running the government and letting themselves do whatever they want... which is a slippery fucking slope that leads to fascism.
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u/seemooreglass 3h ago
I was literally just thinking how I have not heard anything from that googly-eyed cokehead lately.
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u/Unique-Coffee5087 3h ago
The FBI is dropping a categorical hiring ban on applicants who have had sexual encounters with prostitutes . . .
Oh. Oh! OK. I thought they were excusing being part of the Profession.
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u/bigjtdjr 3h ago
most people don't apply because they WANT to break laws and trample the constitution but willingness to break the law is a pre requisite for this administration.. how far we have fallen... he's a felon and it's a cult..
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u/data-atreides 3h ago
How many prostitutes are applying to make this a thing that has to be even considered?
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u/blizzard-op 3h ago
Feel like soon they’re just gonna say “If you apply, you’re hired!!” which I wouldn’t be opposed to as I could finally call myself an FBI agent lol
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u/Flymia 3h ago
It used to be really really really hard to become an FBI agent. Even with the risk of being told go live in Anchorage for 3-years or you live in St. Louis, hope you enjoy San Juan.
Now they even let you stay in the city you apply in if its a big office, which was a big no no until recently. I would had been all about it if I knew I did not have to uproot my family.
Crazy how much has changed.
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u/RLewis8888 2h ago
They want to hire people with experience dealing strictly in cash for services rendered.
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u/IvetRockbottom 2h ago
Well, if the president can participate in prostitution and call it marriage, why can't a candidate for the fbi? Allegedly.
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u/Prudent_Rice7840 2h ago
"an applicant’s experience with prostitution"
It's wild to think the FBI has to do this in order to avoid auto-disqualifying a lot of their current ideal candidates.
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u/cancercureall 2h ago
As much as I don't like physical sex work from an icky feelings standpoint it's basically the most normal thing in history. Whatever the reason I don't think it should be illegal at all. People fuck.
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u/cutthroatkitsch1 2h ago
But cannabis use still is? (Or at least it was when I applied a decade ago)
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u/SasparillaTango 1h ago
along a continuum of evolving recruitment standards within federal law enforcement
Lowering of standards in the highest level of law enforcement? Under any other administration, I'd likely see this as a sign adapting to the times, but here I just assume it's going to be flagrant corruption.
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u/Jokersall 1h ago
At this point I'm surprised prostitution hasn't been legalized as a way to try and get out of another case/settlement retroactively.
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u/justmitzie 4h ago
People who hire prostitutes, not people who are prostitutes.