The FBI has begun advertising new job openings for FBI agents, seeking to recruit criminal investigators from other federal agencies to sign up for an abridged version of its new agent training at Quantico. 

The bureau is under pressure to replace thousands of agents who were fired, forced out, or resigned amid the Trump administration’s effort to purge what Attorney General Pam Bondi calls the “weaponization” of government against President Trump, his aides, conservatives, and Covid vaccine skeptics during the Biden years.

In a LinkedIn post, the FBI associate deputy director, Will Rivers, advertised the new openings for qualified 1811s — the Office of Personnel Management’s designation given to criminal investigators — with at least three years of federal law enforcement experience. Existing 1811s work at a variety of agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the United States Marshalls Service, each with their respective training programs.  

Last month, the Sun reported the FBI’s plans to fast-track a class of 40 1811s through an eight-week training program at the FBI Academy at the Quantico Basic Field Training Course. Traditionally, the program for new agents runs 16 weeks and covers firearms training, physical fitness, and counterterrorism techniques. Starting in November, that program will be dropped to eight weeks for the 40 1811s, a significant deviation from the long-standing benchmark the FBI traditionally sets for aspiring agents.

A qualifying 1811 will have to complete a 10-step special agent application process that includes a screening, Phase I and Phase II tests, background investigation, firearms qualification, and a pre-Quantico physical fitness test. 

“I’ve heard rumors for weeks about dropping requirements, no college degrees, and reducing the training time of new agent trainees. It’s not real folks,” Mr. Rivers wrote in a LinkedIn post. However, he went on to confirm that the qualifying new 1811 agents “would be eligible for a reduced training opportunity compared to our standard academy for new agent trainees.”

Like other federal law enforcement agencies, the FBI is considering ending its college degree requirements for new agents, sources familiar with the FBI’s plans tell the Sun. Roughly 2,300 FBI special agents and analysts have departed through a combination of early retirements and outright firings, people familiar with the FBI’s plans tell the Sun, and in all the FBI is looking to slash its current headcount of 37,000 total employees by 15 percent, yet it still needs new recruits.

Both Mr. Rivers and a spokesman for the FBI did not respond to messages from the Sun requesting comment.

On LinkedIn, a retired FBI supervisory special agent, Jeff Crocker, excoriated Mr. Rivers and FBI leadership for “dropping standards.”

“Since 1908, the FBI has become better through our brother and sister Special Agents from other Federal Law Enforcement agencies applying to become FBI Special Agents. The Bureau benefitted, and still does, from their specialized training, experience, contacts, and perspective. However, they had to go through the same application and training process as attorneys, military officers, accountants, Olympians, police officers, teachers, [and] NFL players,” Mr. Crocker wrote. 

In response, Mr. Rivers justified the abridged training, saying that the bureau is striving to be “highly effective, efficient, and agile as we work through today’s law enforcement challenges.”

“The intent is that if a qualifying 1811 (assuming they pass Phase 1 and 2) passes both the PFT and our pistol qualification course using our weapon, then they could proceed to an estimated 8 week training session that focuses on our other curriculum since fundamentals like fitness and firearms already exist,” Mr. Rivers wrote. 

Until now, most FBI hopefuls would need at least two years of professional experience and a college degree, among other qualifications. FBI recruiters have historically looked favorably at applicants with accounting degrees or backgrounds due to the agency’s longtime focus on financial crimes.

But the FBI director, Kash Patel, and his co-deputy, Dan Bongino, have made “crushing all violent crime” a priority.

Yet unlike the Drug Enforcement Agency, which enforces drug laws, the FBI enforces more than 200 categories of federal laws that go beyond just violent crime. 

“If you look at every other federal law enforcement agency, they really only work a very narrow band of types of cases. IRS Criminal Investigation Division works tax fraud and tax evasion. ICE works, obviously, immigration violations and these guys are exceptionally good at what they do. But for the most part, the Bureau is an agency of generalists,” a former FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force special agent, Harry Samit, tells the Sun.

“Simple logic dictates that a larger quantity of violations requires a greater period of instruction on how to investigate them,” Mr. Crocker tells the Sun. 

‘Another potential challenge for aspiring 1811s: being viewed with skepticism by current agents for not completing the full 16-week program.

“An 1811 could be a very successful agent with the Secret Service, and they decide they want to move over the bureau. If, instead of doing the eight weeks, they do the full 16 weeks, that person is going to show up in their office and have nearly instant credibility,” Mr. Samit, whose book, “The Zacarias Moussaoui Matter: The Arrest and Trial of an Al Qaeda 9/11 Operative,” will be published in October, tells the Sun.

“But if that exact same guy did only eight weeks, he’s going to be viewed suspiciously. Everybody would have concerns about that person,” Mr. Samit says.