Twelve former FBI special agents who were fired this year after kneeling during a racial justice protest in June 2020 have filed a lawsuit against the Bureau and its director, alleging unlawful retaliation. The complaint, filed Monday in federal court in Washington, says the agents — who together have nearly 200 years of experience and awards for preventing mass shootings, disrupting espionage and stopping cyberattacks — kneeled to de-escalate a volatile crowd near the National Archives as unrest spread after George Floyd’s killing.
The suit says the agents were outnumbered, lacked crowd-control training and were not provided riot shields, gas masks or helmets when they faced the crowd. It argues the officers took a precautionary step to defuse a tense, potentially dangerous situation rather than make a partisan statement. The filing, brought by former Justice Department prosecutor Mary Dohrmann of the Washington Litigation Group, emphasizes that the agents were conscious that a single mistake could spark broader unrest.
A Justice Department inspector general review in 2024 found no misconduct, but video of the kneeling went viral and critics characterized the action as political. The lawsuit notes that then-President Trump publicized a negative post about the incident before leaving office.
The complaint alleges that after Kash Patel became FBI director this year he targeted the agents involved. It says several were removed from supervisory positions and a new investigation was opened; while that probe was pending, all twelve were fired in September. The plaintiffs contend that the dismissals bypassed standard FBI misconduct procedures. Their termination letters cited unprofessional conduct and a lack of impartiality, language the complaint attributes to Patel. During his confirmation hearing, Patel had said he would respect internal review processes; the suit accuses him of reneging for political reasons.
The filing also says the abrupt firings disrupted ongoing work, including evidence collection in Utah after the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and support for a Trump administration executive order concerning the District of Columbia. The plaintiffs assert violations of their First Amendment right of association and their Fifth Amendment right to due process and seek reinstatement and back pay. The FBI declined to comment on pending litigation.