FBI Sacks Dozen Of Agents Photographed Kneeling During 2020 George Floyd Protests

 

FBI Sacks Dozen Of Agents Photographed Kneeling During 2020 George Floyd Protests

 

 

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has reportedly fired over a dozen agents who were photographed kneeling during a racial justice protest in Washington, D.C. in 2020, following the death of George Floyd.

 

The agents were initially reassigned last spring but their work has now been terminated, AP reports.

 

Citing people familiar with the matter, the photographs showed a group of agents taking a knee during a demonstration as a possible de-escalation tactic.

 

The death of Floyd, led to a national reckoning over policing and racial injustice and sparked widespread anger after millions of people saw video of the arrest.

 

However, FBI Director, Kash Patel, defended the decision to fire the agents, while the FBI Agents Association condemned the move as unlawful.

 

“We strongly condemn today’s unlawful termination of more than a dozen FBI Special Agents,” the FBI Agents Association stated in a statement on Friday.

 

“As Director Patel has repeatedly stated, nobody is above the law. But rather than providing these agents with fair treatment and due process, Patel chose to again violate the law by ignoring these agents’ constitutional and legal rights instead of following the requisite process,” the association noted in the statement.

 

The exact number of agents fired is unclear, but estimates range from 15 to 22. The FBI Agents Association is calling on Congress to investigate the matter, citing Patel’s disregard for the legal rights of bureau employees.

 

The firings are part of a broader personnel purge at the FBI under Patel’s leadership, with some critics arguing that the move is a campaign of retribution targeting officials viewed as insufficiently loyal.

 

A lawsuit filed by former FBI officials alleges that Patel was instrumental in deciding who would be fired, despite concerns about the legality of such actions.

 

An FBI spokesman declined to comment Friday.

 

The firings come amid a broader personnel purge at the bureau as Patel works to reshape the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency.

 

Five agents and top-level executives were known to have been summarily fired last month in a wave of ousters that current and former officials say has contributed to declining morale.

 

One of those, Steve Jensen, helped oversee investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Another, Brian Driscoll, served as acting FBI director in the early days of the Trump administration and resisted Justice Department demands to supply the names of agents who investigated Jan. 6.

 

A third, Chris Meyer, was incorrectly rumored on social media to have participated in the investigation into President Donald Trump’s retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. A fourth, Walter Giardina, participated in high-profile investigations like the one into Trump adviser Peter Navarro.

 

A lawsuit filed by Jensen, Driscoll and another fired FBI supervisor, Spencer Evans, alleged that Patel communicated that he understood that it was “likely illegal” to fire agents based on cases they worked but was powerless to stop it because the White House and the Justice Department were determined to remove all agents who investigated Trump.

 

Patel denied at a congressional hearing last week taking orders from the White House on whom to fire and said anyone who has been fired failed to meet the FBI’s standards.