The FBI’s woke recruitment practices are under fire from Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee, who are demanding answers from Director Christopher Wray over the bureau’s “hyper-fixation” on hitting DEI targets, which they say is putting American lives — and liberty — at risk.
The FBI has struggled to attract qualified applicants since President Biden issued his first executive order on Inauguration Day promulgating DEI programs across the administration, Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) claimed in a letter sent to Wray on Monday.
“A few months later, on April 21, 2021, you announced the hiring of the FBI’s first Chief Diversity Officer, Scott McMillon [and] the FBI [re-focused] its recruitment efforts on DEI statistics …
“The FBI’s hyper-fixation on hitting Biden Administration-imposed DEI initiatives, rather than qualifications that make the best federal law enforcement candidates and officers, has created a climate within the FBI that puts the American public and American civil liberties at risk.”
Jordan cites examples such as:
– The FBI Richmond Field Office’s infamous Catholic memo targeting traditional Catholics as potential subversives.
– The armed, pre-dawn raid on the residence of pro-life advocate Mark Houck.
– The FBI’s “nefarious role” in ensuring the Hunter Biden laptop story was suppressed and censored from the American people “weeks before the presidential election.”
The Post has reported previously on a dossier compiled by a group of retired senior FBI special agents and analysts that detailed “alarming trends” in the bureau’s recruitment and selection process, including:
– The capabilities of the FBI are “degrading” because it is no longer hiring “the best and brightest” candidates to fill the position of special agent. “An increasing number of lower quality candidates — described by one source as ‘breadcrumbs’ because they were rejected by other federal law enforcement agencies — are applying to become FBI Special Agents; and the FBI is selecting those candidates to become FBI Special Agents because they satisfy the FBI’s priority to meet Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) mandates.”
– 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.”
The decline in recruitment standards has contributed to the public’s lack of confidence in the FBI’s ability to “execute its mission in an impartial and competent manner,” writes Jordan.
He has demanded Wray hand over documents by May 20 that show employment numbers and recruitment targets, as well as annual failure and graduation rates at the FBI Academy.