FBI sacks agents who knelt at Washington demonstration after Floyd’s death
The FBI has dismissed agents who were photographed kneeling during a racial justice protest in Washington that followed the 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, according to three people familiar with the matter, who spoke on Friday.
The bureau had previously reassigned the agents last spring but has since fired them, said the individuals who requested anonymity to discuss personnel matters with The Associated Press.
The exact number of FBI employees terminated was not immediately known, but two sources estimated it to be around 20.
The controversial photographs depicted a group of agents kneeling during one of the demonstrations following Floyd’s death in May 2020, an event that spurred a nationwide examination of policing and racial injustice and incited widespread outrage after millions viewed footage of the arrest. The kneeling gesture had upset some within the FBI while being interpreted by others as a possible de-escalation method during a time of protests.
The FBI Agents Association confirmed late Friday in a statement that more than a dozen agents, including military veterans with additional statutory protections, had been dismissed. The association condemned the firings as unlawful, called for a congressional investigation, and described the firings as further evidence of FBI Director Kash Patel’s disregard for the legal rights of bureau employees.
“As Director Patel has repeatedly stated, nobody is above the law,” the agents association stated. “But rather than offering these agents fair treatment and due process, Patel has once more violated the law by disregarding these agents’ constitutional and legal rights, instead of adhering to the required process.”
An FBI spokesperson declined to comment on Friday.
The dismissals occur amid a wider personnel purge at the bureau, as Patel aims to reshape the nation’s leading federal law enforcement agency.
Five agents and top-level executives were reportedly summarily fired last month in a series of ousters that, according to current and former officials, have contributed to a decline in morale.
Among them, Steve Jensen helped supervise investigations into the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Another, Brian Driscoll, served as acting FBI director in the early Trump administration and resisted Justice Department demands to disclose the names of agents involved in investigating January 6.
A third, Chris Meyer, was falsely rumored on social media to have been involved in the investigation into President Donald Trump’s retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. A fourth, Walter Giardina, participated in high-profile investigations such as the one into Trump advisor Peter Navarro.
A lawsuit filed by Jensen, Driscoll, and another dismissed FBI supervisor, Spencer Evans, claimed that Patel communicated awareness that it was “likely illegal” to fire agents based on the cases they worked on but was powerless to prevent it, given that the White House and the Justice Department were keen on removing all agents who had investigated Trump.
Patel denied during a congressional hearing last week that he was taking directives from the White House regarding whom to fire, emphasizing that anyone who had been dismissed failed to meet the FBI’s standards.
Deputy Editor
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