Former FBI Agents Sue Leaders Over Firings After 2020 Kneeling Incident
Former Agents File Lawsuit in Washington, D.C.
Twelve former FBI agents filed a lawsuit on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging they were unlawfully terminated from the FBI. The lawsuit names senior leaders at the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice as defendants.
The plaintiffs, whose names are not disclosed in the filing, include nine women. They assert that their dismissals were connected to a kneeling incident that occurred during racial justice protests in Washington, D.C., in 2020. An FBI spokesperson declined to comment on the pending litigation.
Kneeling Incident Near National Archives
The lawsuit centers on events that took place on June 4, 2020, in Washington, D.C., during protests that followed the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020. On that date, a group of FBI agents from the FBI's Washington Field Office were near the National Archives when protesters surrounded them and backed them against a wall.
According to the account in the lawsuit, several agents knelt during the confrontation. Other agents then followed their example after observing that the action appeared to help de-escalate tensions with the surrounding crowd. Senior FBI officials later reviewed the agents’ decision to kneel and determined that the action was taken to calm the situation rather than for political reasons.
Alleged Retaliatory Actions and Terminations
The lawsuit states that in April, several of the former agents were abruptly demoted from supervisory roles, which they link to the kneeling incident. It further alleges that Kash Patel, identified in the lawsuit as the FBI Director, ordered Steve Jensen, then head of the FBI's Washington Field Office, to compile a list of all agents who knelt that day.
The filing says Jensen persuaded Patel to begin an internal investigation before taking any personnel action. According to the lawsuit, the internal review was still in progress and no final decision had been issued when the agents were fired in September.
The termination letters cited "unprofessional conduct and a lack of impartiality" and stated that this conduct led to the "weaponization" of the FBI. The letters also stated that Patel had reviewed all materials from the internal investigation. The lawsuit contends that the internal investigative materials did not support the conclusions described in the termination letters.
Claims About Motive and Prior Related Litigation
In the complaint, the former agents assert that they believed their terminations were ordered by the administration of President Donald Trump. The filing also claims that Patel was determined to remove them from their positions as soon as he was confirmed.
The lawsuit notes that in September, other senior FBI leaders, including former Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll, filed a separate lawsuit challenging their own terminations. That earlier lawsuit alleged that those officials were dismissed as part of what they described as a "campaign of retribution."
The new lawsuit additionally references a claim that defendants targeted the plaintiffs because the plaintiffs used de-escalation tactics with civilians perceived as opposed to, or not affiliated with, President Trump. The lawsuit states that photographs of the kneeling agents became widely circulated on social media after the 2020 incident.
Public References to Kneeling Incident
The complaint notes that in 2023, Donald Trump highlighted the kneeling episode by sharing a news story about the agents on his Truth Social account. That story included an accusation by then-U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz that the agents involved later received favorable assignments described as "plum" promotions within the FBI.
No resolution of the lawsuit filed by the twelve former agents has been reported at this time, and the internal FBI investigation referenced in the filing was described as still pending at the time the agents were dismissed.