Fears of looser standards as the FBI and Justice Department scramble to
fill a depleted workforce
[April 20, 2026]
By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
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.
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters is seen, March 21,
2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner, File)
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.”
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