FBI, Kash Patel Drop ‘Imperative’ Testing Requirements for Some New Agent Applicants, Alarming Former Bureau Leaders

The FBI is set to lower the barrier for entry for support staffers hoping to become special agents by ending two long-standing testing requirements — a written test and an in-person vetting process — from its historically stringent application process, according to a Reuters report and people familiar with the bureau’s plans. The decision to amend the Special Agent Selection System for existing support staffers —including intelligence analysts, financial experts, linguists, and others in non-Special Agent roles — is the latest in a series of modifications FBI Director Kash Patel has made in the past year that former agents say amounts to an avoidable lowering of necessary standards for the world’s most powerful law enforcement agency.“Making it easier to become an FBI agent can result in further erosion of the FBI’s culture, leadership environment, and operational practices,” a retired FBI executive assistant director in charge, Christopher M. Piehota, tells the Sun. “Instead, it should be getting harder to become a member of the FBI as standards rise, leadership expectations improve, and the bureau returns to what it once was,” Mr. Piehota adds. An FBI spokesman, Ben Williamson, did not respond to emails and texts from the Sun on Wednesday or Thursday.Under the new requirements, support staffers who pass a “Phase 1” computerized test may now proceed directly to the FBI’s Basic Field Training Course in Quantico. Until now, support staffers were required to undergo the same process as regular applicants, which included a proctored writing assessment taken at a testing center and an in-person interview before a panel of three special agent assessors. The in-person interview is an “imperative step” in the application process, a retired FBI supervisory special agent and applicant assessor, Jeff Crocker, tells the Sun. The three assessors administer a structured interview and evaluate certain qualities —including relevant life experiences, an ability to think on their feet, comfort with public speaking — that are necessary to approve a worthy candidate. The new guidelines allow support employees who did not pass one or both of the Phase 2 tests in past applications to reactivate their applications, potentially fast-tracking them into Quantico, people familiar with the FBI’s new plans tell the Sun.“Someone who applies to be an FBI mailroom clerk does not go through such a battery of questions and tests found in Phase 2,” Mr. Crocker tells the Sun. In a statement to Reuters, Mr. Williamson said the bureau was not “lowering the standards or removing qualifications in any way.”“What we are doing is streamlining the process to remove duplicative, bureaucratic steps to the application system for onboard employees,” Williamson said in a statement to Reuters.Mr. Patel, a former national security staffer and federal public defender who had no prior FBI experience before being confirmed as FBI director in 2025, is under pressure to hire 700 new agents in 2026 to replace the exodus of thousands of special agents who were fired, forced out, or resigned since President Trump took office, sources tell the Sun.In September, the FBI announced it was allowing qualified 1811s — the Office of Personnel Management’s designation given to criminal investigators — from other federal agencies to sign up for an abridged version of its new agent training at Quantico, now known as Advanced Special Agent Training or ASAT. At the time, an FBI associate deputy director, Will Rivers, defended the new program, known as the 1811 Initiative, saying it wasn’t a matter of the FBI “dropping requirements” but rather allowing qualifying 1811s to focus on the FBI’s curriculum, “since fundamentals like fitness and firearms already exist.” Mr. Rivers has since retired from the FBI.“FBI hiring standards are the highest in law enforcement, which ensures an exceptional workforce to investigate the full spectrum of threats and crimes. There is never a time or need to lower hiring standards for FBI Special Agents,” the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI President, Michael E. Anderson, tells the Sun. This week, Mr. Patel flew to Italy for a series of meetings with several officials, including the Ambassador to Italy, Tilman Fertitta. He is expected to attend the medal-round games at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, where the men’s United States Olympic hockey team is competing.On Thursday, the women’s United States Olympic hockey team defeated Canada 2-1 in the gold medal game on Thursday. The game-winning goal was scored by American hockey player Megan Keller, who, sources tell the Sun, is the daughter of a former FBI agent. Mr. Patel was not in attendance.

FBI, Kash Patel Drop ‘Imperative’ Testing Requirements for Some New Agent Applicants, Alarming Former Bureau Leaders

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