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 would be customary for the jobs.
They’re never going to attract the kind of talent or loyalty or qualifications they had previously, these people they’re hiring now are going to be festering their corruption and incompetence around for decades. It really is remarkable how much damage Trump has done to the entire US civil service in such a short time. He has drained the swamp alright, by displacing it with toxic waste instead.