FBI officers are seen here taking a knee as demonstrators marched in June 2020, in Washington, D.C., during a protest over the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
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Jose Luis Magana/AP
Twelve FBI agents who were fired this year for taking a knee during racial justice protests in the heated summer of 2020 are suing the Bureau and its director, alleging unlawful retaliation.
The former special agents—who together have nearly 200 years of experience—once received awards for helping disrupt mass shootings, expose foreign spies and thwart cyber attacks.
But they say as elite federal law enforcement agents, they never received training on crowd control, nor did they have riot shields, gas masks, or helmets when they faced down volatile crowds in the streets of Washington, D.C., in June 2020.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington on Monday, described the small group of FBI agents as vastly outnumbered and literally backed against the wall of the National Archives building as unrest swept the country over the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Court papers said they kneeled not to reflect a left-wing political point of view, but rather to de-escalate a situation that threatened to spin out of control.
“Mindful of the potentially catastrophic consequences, Plaintiffs knew that a split-second misjudgment by any of them could ignite an already-charged national climate and trigger further violence and unrest,” said the lawsuit, filed by former Justice Department prosecutor Mary Dohrmann of the Washington Litigation Group.
Accused of ‘lack of impartiality’
The Justice Department inspector general reviewed the incident in 2024 and found no misconduct. But the episode went viral on social media, attracting critics who cast the kneeling as a political act. Before he returned to the White House, President Trump also posted a negative story about the matter.
Soon after new FBI Director Kash Patel joined the Bureau this year, the lawsuit said he began targeting the agents involved in the episode for retaliation. Several of plaintiffs were yanked from supervisory roles at the FBI. Officials launched a new investigation. The matter was still pending when they were all fired in September, shortcutting typical procedures for FBI misconduct probes.
In their dismissal letters, Patel wrote: “You have demonstrated unprofessional conduct and a lack of impartiality in carrying out duties, leading to the political weaponization of government.”
During his confirmation hearing, Patel told senators he would honor the internal review process. But the lawsuit accuses him of breaking that pledge for his own political purposes.
The abrupt departure of the fired agents disrupted important work, including evidence collection in Utah following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and efforts to support the Trump administration’s executive order on “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful,” court papers said.
The case alleges violations of the agents’ First Amendment rights to free association and their Fifth Amendment right to due process. They’re asking to be reinstated to their jobs and for back pay.
The FBI declined to comment on pending litigation.
