FBI Director Kash Patel’s tenure has been a national embarrassment in a great many ways, but among the most jarring developments this year is the sheer volume of bureau personnel who’ve been purged for political reasons, leaving the FBI destabilized.
MS NOW’s Ken Dilanian noted that the ongoing purge “is without precedent in the modern history of the bureau. It raises questions about whether the Trump administration is trying to turn the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency into an instrument of presidential whim — exactly the thing he baselessly accused his opponent of doing.”
That was in August. Things are worse now.
For those concerned with justice and the integrity of federal law enforcement, that’s the bad news. The good news is that many of those who’ve been peremptorily fired are fighting back in court. NPR reported, for example, that 12 FBI agents who were fired this year for taking a knee during racial justice protests in 2020 are now suing Patel and the bureau, alleging unlawful retaliation.
According to the former agents’ court filing, they were backed against a wall in the middle of a protest and took a knee to de-escalate a situation that threatened to escalate. From the report:
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 Justice Department inspector general reviewed the incident in 2024 and found no misconduct. Similarly, according to the agents’ version of events, then-FBI Director Chris Wray said they did the right thing under difficult circumstances, and then-FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich told the agents they wouldn’t be punished.
But after Donald Trump returned to the White House, those who took a knee were fired anyway, with Patel accusing them in their dismissal letters of “unprofessional conduct and a lack of impartiality in carrying out duties, leading to the political weaponization of government.”
Commenting on the absurdity of these agents’ ouster, their lawyer told The New York Times, “The country is less safe than it was before these FBI agents were fired en masse.” She added that the abrupt dismissals violated the bureau’s own internal rules, which protect not only the agents, but also the country by “ensuring that people who are highly trained and effective are employed at the FBI.”
Time will tell what may come of the civil litigation, but it’s worth emphasizing for context that they’re not the only ousted FBI personnel who’ve turned to the courts to put things right.
The Associated Press reported last month: A veteran FBI employee training to become a special agent was fired last month for displaying at his workspace an LGBTQ+ flag, which had previously flown outside a field office, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court. David Maltinsky had worked at the FBI for 16 years and was nearly finished with special agent training in Quantico, Virginia, when he was called into a meeting last month with FBI officials, given a letter from Director Kash Patel and told he was being ‘summarily dismissed’ over the inappropriate display of political signage, Maltinsky’s lawsuit said. What’s more, in August, Patel and his team ousted three experienced bureau leaders, including Brian Driscoll, a widely respected figure among rank-and-file agents who was removed after he helped prevent a mass firing of thousands of FBI officials who worked on Jan. 6 cases. A month later, MS NOW reported on their federal lawsuit, which alleged that Patel “knowingly broke the law when he fired senior FBI executives at the behest of the White House and under pressure from Trump allies.” These cases are now starting to advance through the legal process, and it’s too soon to speculate about their possible outcomes. But they clearly pose legal and political problems for Patel and the administration. Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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