Fears of Looser Standards for FBI, DOJ 04/20 06:21

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- The FBI and Justice Department are scrambling to rebuild 
a depleted workforce after a wave of departures over the past year, with 
leaders easing hiring requirements and accelerating recruitment in ways that 
some current and former officials see as a lowering of long-accepted standards.

   The FBI has used social media campaigns to attract applicants, offered 
abbreviated training for candidates from other federal agencies and relaxed 
requirements for support staff seeking to become agents, according to people 
familiar with the changes and internal communications seen by The Associated 
Press. At the same time, the Justice Department has opened the door to hiring 
prosecutors right out of law school to help fill vacancies in U.S. attorney's 
offices across the country.

   Some current and former agents also say the FBI is promoting into positions 
of leadership employees with less experience than is customary for the jobs.

   The moves reflect a broader effort to stabilize a workforce strained by 
retirements and resignations prompted in part by concerns over the Trump 
administration's politicization of the department, along with the firings of 
lawyers, agents and other employees deemed insufficiently loyal to the 
Republican president's agenda. Critics of the changes say they amount to a 
reduction in standards for a law enforcement institution that has long prided 
itself on professional expertise and bears responsibility for everything from 
preventing terrorist attacks to building complex public corruption prosecutions.

   "It's a sign of, among other things, the difficulty the department is having 
right now in keeping and recruiting people," said Greg Brower, a former U.S. 
attorney in Nevada who left the FBI in 2018 as its chief congressional liaison.

   The FBI defended the changes as a necessary modernization of its hiring 
pipeline, saying it is streamlining, not lowering, standards and removing what 
it says were "bureaucratic" steps in the application process. It said 
applicants were still evaluated "on the same competencies."

   "The Bureau holds high standards for potential and current employees, and 
there is a rigorous application and background process to join the FBI," the 
FBI said in a statement.

   Waived requirements in some cases to become an FBI agent

   The FBI has long been seen as the nation's premier federal law enforcement 
agency, with a recruitment process anchored around physical fitness tests, a 
writing assessment, interview and training academy at Quantico, Virginia.

   Elements of the regimen have been periodically tweaked to fit the bureau's 
needs, including over the past year under FBI Director Kash Patel 's leadership.

   With a mantra to "let good cops be cops," Patel announced last year that 
transfers from other agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Administration would 
be able to complete a nine-week training academy instead of the traditional 
academy that spans more than four months. The change rankled some current and 
former officials who say the FBI's protocols, culture and diversity of cases it 
handles help to distinguish it from other agencies.

   For support staff employees looking to become agents, the bureau more 
recently said it would waive requirements of a written assessment and an 
interview with a three-member panel of FBI agents meant to measure life 
experience and judgment, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke 
on condition of anonymity to discuss the moves and an internal message seen by 
the AP.

   The FBI said onboard employees would still need recommendations from a 
senior leader and to complete Quantico training.

   "We are not lowering 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," the FBI said in a 
statement, adding, "These are changes based on a wide variety of feedback from 
successful agents with over 20 years' experience."

   Patel boasted in January of a 112% increase in applications, and the FBI 
says it has a "clear path" to add around 700 special agents this year and that 
its current Quantico class is one of its largest in years. But some people 
familiar with the matter say an applications uptick does not necessarily 
correspond to a surge in high-caliber recruits that can offset the attrition 
the bureau has endured.

   At the other end of the employment spectrum, the FBI also faces turnover 
among senior leaders, including special agents in charge, the title given to 
heads of most of the bureau's 56 field offices. Some were fired by Patel over 
the past year. Others retired. Many offices are now led by someone who has been 
in the job for under a year.

   Facing what current and former officials say is difficulty in filling some 
of the positions, the FBI has moved quickly to promote agents up the ladder, 
people familiar with the matter say. That includes elevating assistant special 
agents in charge to special agents in charge and opening the door for employees 
to be considered for leadership roles without the significant headquarters 
experience the FBI historically regarded as necessary for a holistic view of 
bureau operations.

   As a conservative podcast host before becoming director, Patel talked about 
shutting down FBI headquarters and transforming it into a museum of the "deep 
state" and immediately upon his arrival told colleagues that as director he 
would move hundreds of employees from Washington into the field.

   "As a field agent, you have a field agent's mentality, you have a field 
agent's view," said Chris Piehota, a retired FBI senior executive. Without 
adequate headquarters experience, he added, you don't know "the business side 
of the FBI, the logistical side of the FBI or the political jungle" that can 
accompany the job.

   Justice Department changes

   The Justice Department, meanwhile, has lowered hiring prerequisites for some 
federal prosecutors.

   Department officials recently suspended a policy that U.S. attorneys offices 
only hire prosecutors with at least one year of experience practicing law. The 
department did not explain the reason, but said in a statement that it is 
"proud to empower young and passionate prosecutors and offer attorneys at every 
level the opportunity to invest their talents into keeping their communities 
safe."

   It comes as parts of the agency are struggling to keep up with the workload 
amid critical staffing shortages, with the department recently acknowledging 
that it has lost nearly 1,000 assistant U.S. attorneys.

   In Minnesota, for example, the federal prosecutors' office has been gutted 
by resignations amid frustration with the administration's stepped-up 
immigration enforcement and the department's response to fatal shootings of 
civilians by federal agents.

   Justice Department headquarters in Washington has endured staffing losses, 
too.

   The number of lawyers in the Criminal Division's Violent Crime and 
Racketeering Section, which prosecutes organized crime groups and violent 
gangs, is down significantly, though the section is looking to hire additional 
attorneys. A National Security Division section that works espionage cases has 
reported a 40% drop in prosecutors.

   The department said in a statement that it has seen an increase in criminal 
complaints and indictments despite a loss in prosecutors, underscoring the 
"bloated, ineffective and weaponized" institution it says the administration 
inherited.

   Officials have enlisted military lawyers to serve as special prosecutors in 
some offices. The Justice Department has taken to social media to recruit 
applicants, and the FBI has done the same in search of new agents. One recent 
post from the FBI's Indianapolis office said: "A calling bigger than yourself. 
A mission that matters. If you're ready for the challenge, there's a place for 
you on the FBI team."

   Chad Mizelle, who served as chief of staff to Trump's first attorney 
general, Pam Bondi, recently urged lawyers to contact him on X if they want to 
become prosecutors, "and support President Trump and anti-crime agenda." 
Mizelle's post raised eyebrows not only because federal prosecutors have not 
generally been solicited over social media, but also because support for the 
president has not been a prerequisite for career employees.

   "We need good prosecutors," wrote Mizelle, who left the department in 
October. "And DOJ is hiring across the country. Now is your chance to join the 
mission and do good for our country."