A group of retired and active-duty FBI agents and analysts have submitted a report to the House Judiciary Committee that claims the nation’s premier law enforcement agency is sacrificing its standards to adhere to DEI requirements.
Titled “Report on FBI Special Agent Recruitment and Selection,” the 112-page document has subheadings that indicate the report’s negative conclusions about hiring at the agency, including “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) & the woke ideology,” “The culture of physical fitness failures at the FBI,” and “Poor writing skills of FBI special agents & new agent trainees.”
According to the report, first detailed in the New York Post, the FBI’s “transformation of its recruitment priorities” began with Robert Mueller, who served as director of the FBI from 2001 to 2013, and continued under his successors — James Comey and current FBI boss Christopher Wray. This transformation included encouraging the celebration of LGBTQ Pride inside the FBI, eventually leading to “the full adoption of [DEI] to guide the hiring of personnel and promotion.”
The report further claims that “FBI Special Agent hiring standards have been relaxed and requirements measurably lowered in categories that include physical fitness, illicit drug use, financial irregularities, mental health, full-time work experience, and integrity.”
It also claims that class leader selections at the FBI Academy favor minorities. The authors contrasted the prioritizing of DEI at the agency with the approach of the CIA, which recruits its officers based on current threat priorities. Consequently, the FBI is ending up with “lower-quality candidates — described by one source as ‘breadcrumbs’ because they were rejected by other federal law-enforcement agencies”— who the FBI is hiring to meet DEI mandates, according to the report.
FBI recruiters are expected to adhere to DEI-centered recruitment efforts, which include hosting “Diversity Applicant Recruitment” events based on race, gender, and sexual orientation. Per the report, recruiters who refused to attend Pride parades or fly the Pride flag would “likely be removed immediately.”
The agents compiled a dossier of alleged failings on the part of new recruits that included one female applicant who should have been disqualified for being too overweight but was pushed through by higher-ups at the agency and a liberalized drug policy that accepted applicants “who had a lifestyle of using drugs.” Candidates with “documented mental illness” were not disqualified.
In another instance, a female recruit allegedly wrote so poorly that she could never make a case and “could not be trusted in court.” She was to be terminated at the end of her probationary period but remained because the chain of command said, “We need more female agents.”
On social media, America First Legal cited the report in a post on X, stating that it is investigating the FBI because its use of race and sex quotas violates the law.
However, the FBI’s recruitment policies have defenders who argue that DEI is necessary to remedy past wrongs.
“The reason DEI exists is because old white men were only hiring and promoting white men!” posted Chris Becker. “You can talk about merit all you want! But the last time you were able to hire and fire and promote people on merit, women and minorities were left out! Let’s face it, the GOP just wants its white-run country back!”