#staffing-crisis — Trump Fail

Kash Patel's FBI Lost Another Top Leader: Co-Deputy Director Andrew Bailey — a Former State Attorney General Once Seen as Patel's Likely Successor — Resigned After Barely a Year, Publicly Citing Family, but Reporting Says Patel Kept Him at Arm's Length, Went Months Without Speaking to Him, and Cut Him Out of Meetings Reportedly Because Bailey Kept Flagging Things as Unconstitutional — While the Administration's Own Dismissive Explanation Was That He "Quit Because He Had Nothing to Do"

On September 28, 2026, Andrew Bailey — the co-deputy director of the FBI and, before that, the attorney general of Missouri — announced he is resigning from the bureau effective October 2, after just over a year. Publicly, Bailey said he was stepping down "to return to my family in Missouri," and cited "great pride in what we have accomplished." Beneath that, the reporting describes dysfunction. According to The New York Times, Bailey and Director Kash Patel had an acrimonious relationship and went months without communicating; other sources said Patel kept Bailey at arm's length from the start, did not invite him to meetings, and cut him out — reportedly because Bailey kept flagging actions as unconstitutional. A senior administration official offered a dismissive gloss: Bailey had "nothing to do" and "quit because he had nothing to do." Either version is damning. If Bailey was frozen out for raising legal and constitutional objections, then Patel sidelined the person whose job was partly to keep the FBI within the law. And if a co-deputy director of the FBI genuinely had "nothing to do," that is its own indictment of how Patel runs the place. Bailey — once floated as a potential Patel successor — is only the latest senior departure: his co-deputy Dan Bongino left last December, and experienced officials have streamed out under a director this archive has documented purging the bureau, gutting its standards, and treating it as a personal instrument.

To Refill an FBI Hollowed Out by His Own Purges, Director Kash Patel Quietly Loosened the Bureau's Background Standards — So That Paying for Sex, Stealing From an Employer, and Even Bestiality or Animal Cruelty Are No Longer Automatic Disqualifiers for Would-Be Agents — All While Publicly Insisting, Against the Documented Rule Changes, That He Is "Not Reducing Our Standards" but "Making It Harder"

The FBI — the nation's premier law-enforcement agency, whose job is to investigate crime — has quietly loosened its hiring standards so that people who committed certain crimes and serious misconduct can now become agents. According to reporting, under changes made in June 2026, a range of conduct that was once an automatic disqualifier is no longer one: applicants who paid for a prostitute may still be eligible if it was more than 10 years ago and happened fewer than three times; stealing from an employer is survivable if it was more than three years ago; and bestiality or animal cruelty no longer disqualifies if it occurred before the applicant turned 18. The bureau has also moved to reduce vetting for some applicants and to fast-track existing support staff into the special-agent academy without the interview and writing assessment previously required. The reason is a staffing crisis — roughly 1,139 special agents left in 2025 alone — but that crisis is largely self-inflicted: Director Kash Patel, Trump's hand-picked FBI chief, helped drive agents out through a wave of purges, firings, and resignations targeting those tied to January 6 and Trump-related investigations. Having hollowed out the workforce, he is now lowering the bar to refill it — while flatly denying he is doing so, insisting "we're not reducing our standards — we're actually making it harder." The documented rule changes say otherwise.