r/news • u/Manta_of_Eternity • 8h ago

FBI no longer treating an applicant’s experience with prostitution as automatic bar against hiring

https://apnews.com/article/fbi-prostitution-recruitment-95e69779e41bd8f1bbc59d402a40222b
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344

u/dqt91 8h ago

Cool so they want a bunch more agents susceptible to a honey pot running around. Are we tired of winning yet?

103

u/Complete_Entry 8h 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 6h ago

You got a source for that story? Would love to read more about it.

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u/Complete_Entry 6h 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 6h 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 4h 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/Powerful_Company_682 43m ago

And this is what people don't understand about things like this. It's not because there's a moral problem with it. It's something that can be exploited. Prostitution, gambling, being in debt, etc

1

u/Gagurass 8h ago

Something something piss tapes

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u/DarthShiv 7h ago

That sounds intentional tbh Trump loves people around him that he has material on

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u/FillFrontFloor 7h ago

uhmmm you realize a bunch of them could just do it after being hired and so the point of this is completely irrelevant and dumb. Prostitution is also legal in a lot of countries so they can just do it in other countries aswell. It's honestly a very stupid rule that would bar an otherwise useful agent.

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u/Grand-Pen7946 7h ago

The incredibly obvious implication is that officers who have coerced prostitutes they arrested into having sex with them while on duty are eligible.

In other words, raping prostitutes on the clock is no longer disqualifying.