By Robert Simels
Originally published in amNewYork on
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Robert Simels examines testimony FBI Director Kash Patel gave to the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 15, 2026. Patel told the committee that "involuntary" bestiality would no longer automatically disqualify someone from being hired by the FBI, and Republican Senator John Kennedy pressed him on the change. Simels uses the exchange as a starting point for a broader look at how the Bureau is being run.
He places the moment in history, recalling J. Edgar Hoover's long tenure and the 1973 resignation of acting director L. Patrick Gray, who admitted destroying documents from the White House safe of Watergate figure E. Howard Hunt. That history, he explains, led Congress to set a 10 year term for FBI directors to keep the job insulated from politics.
Simels then lists conduct by Patel that he finds troubling, including that more than 200 FBI employees were purged or forced out, that government jets were used for at least 10 personal or recreational trips, and that an FBI SWAT team was directed to provide security for his girlfriend, the country music performer Alexis Wilkins. He also recounts how President Trump fired James Comey and later pushed out Christopher Wray.
Simels concludes that the FBI remains the country's premier law enforcement agency and that it is time to move on from Patel, while noting Senator Bill Cassidy's caution that a replacement could be worse.
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This page is a summary prepared for robertsimels.com. The full commentary was published by amNewYork and remains on amNewYork's site.
Robert Simels. Robert Simels hosts the podcast Injustice for All and serves as a consultant on criminal justice matters. He is no longer practicing law.
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