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FBI Director Kash Patel
The 12 agents say the firings violate their First and Fifth Amendment rights.
Twelve former FBI agents who were fired by the agency’s director, Kash Patel, for kneeling at a protest over the death of George Floyd have sued over their termination.
The suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that Patel, the FBI, and other members of Donald Trump’s administration “violated the First Amendment by targeting the FBI agents based on their assumptions about the agents’ partisan political affiliations” and “violated the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment by summarily dismissing the agents years later, in contravention of FBI policy, and after the FBI had already cleared the agents,” says a press release from the Washington Litigation group, which is representing the agents along with John Kuchta Law.
The agents are identified as “John Does” and “Jane Does.” They were fired in September of this year, and some were demoted earlier The suit names as defendants Patel, the FBI, Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Department of Justice, and the Executive Office of the President.
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The agents were stationed in Washington, D.C., when protests broke out in many cities over the killing of Floyd, a Black man, by police in Minneapolis May 25, 2020. On June 4 of that year, they were patrolling D.C. “when they were confronted by a mob that included hostile individuals alongside families with young children,” the lawsuit states.
They “remained calm” and “avoided triggering violence by assuming a kneeling posture associated with de-escalation between law enforcement officers and their communities during this period of national unrest,” according to the suit. Their move was “immediately successful,” as “the mass of people moved on without escalating to violence,” the suit says.
“Plaintiffs did not need to discharge their firearms that day,” it continues. “Plaintiffs saved American lives.”
Shortly afterward, the then-leaders of the FBI and the DOJ “reviewed Plaintiffs’ actions and correctly determined that they were consistent with FBI policy and warranted no adverse action of any kind,” the suit says.
When Patel became FBI director this year in the second Trump administration, another review found no fault with the agents’ actions, yet they were fired, each receiving “an identical single-page letter accusing them of ‘unprofessional conduct and a lack of impartiality in carrying out duties, leading to the political weaponization of government,’” the suit notes. But, according to the agents and their lawyers, it is the defendants who are weaponizing government for political purposes.
In 2023, then-Congressman Matt Gaetz wrote a letter that “attacked the FBI agents for kneeling,” and Trump, then out of office, shared a Fox News article referencing Gaetz’s letter on social media, the suit says. This year, Patel published a book accusing the FBI of being part of the so-called Deep State — which is a right-wing catch-all term for career government employees — and saying the Deep State and the Democratic Party are working hand in hand.
The agents, who have 200 years of experience combined, were fired because they were perceived as not supporting Trump, the suit says. That is contrary to the First Amendment, the lawyers say. Some were eligible for early retirement, but they were not offered that, the document notes.
“On June 4, 2020, our clients acted with calm and professionalism to de-escalate a potentially violent encounter with fellow Americans. Five years later, Kash Patel and the Trump Administration are targeting these patriotic and highly skilled FBI agents for purely partisan reasons,” Mary Dohrmann, senior counsel at the Washington Litigation Group, said in the press release. “These partisan firings are the true weaponization of government. The nation is less safe as a result.”
“These agents defused a dangerous situation without firing a single shot. Isn’t that exactly what we want from law enforcement?” added John Kuchta of John Kuchta Law, who represents one of the agents.
The suit calls for the court to declare that the defendants violated the agents’ First and Fifth Amendment rights and offer appropriate relief, in the Fifth Amendment case including but not limited to a name-clearing hearing. It demands that the FBI reinstate them immediately and not take any further adverse action against them without due process and expunge their files of records related to their demotions or terminations. It also seeks back pay, court costs, and any other relief the court deems appropriate.
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