The Federal Bureau of Investigation is facing a storm of controversy after firing more than a dozen agents who were photographed kneeling during a racial justice protest in Washington, D.C., in 2020. The dismissals, which occurred in late September 2025, have ignited fierce debate within law enforcement circles and among the public, raising questions about political influence, due process, and the future direction of the FBI under its current leadership.
The firings stem from events that unfolded on June 4, 2020. In the wake of George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police, Washington, D.C.,—like much of the nation—was gripped by mass protests demanding racial justice. FBI agents were deployed to protect federal buildings as public anger swelled. During one particularly tense demonstration, a group of agents was photographed kneeling, a gesture widely seen at the time as an act of solidarity with protesters but, according to several sources cited by Reuters and the Associated Press, intended as a de-escalation tactic to calm the crowd.
According to The Washington Post and Reuters, the number of agents terminated ranges from 15 to over 20, with some of those dismissed holding senior positions within the bureau. The exact figure remains uncertain, as official statements from the FBI have been notably absent. An FBI spokesperson declined to comment on the matter, as reported by multiple outlets including the Associated Press and UPI.
The FBI Agents Association, a nonprofit advocacy group representing bureau employees, did not mince words in its condemnation. In a statement issued late Friday, the association declared, “Rather than providing these agents with fair treatment and due process, Patel chose to again violate the law by ignoring these agents’ constitutional and legal rights instead of following the requisite process.” The group further argued that the dismissals “violate the due process rights” of the agents and will make it more difficult to recruit and retain personnel—an assertion echoed by law enforcement experts who warn of lasting damage to morale and institutional trust.
Many of the agents fired are military veterans, a detail highlighted by the association as particularly troubling. Military veterans in federal service often have additional statutory protections, making their termination a more complex and, in the eyes of some, questionable process. The association’s statement continued, “Leaders uphold the law, they don’t repeatedly break it. Patel’s dangerous new pattern of actions is weakening the FBI because they eliminate valuable expertise and damage trust between leadership and the workforce.”
The firings are the latest—and perhaps most high-profile—development in what several outlets, including Reuters and the Associated Press, have described as a broader “personnel purge” led by FBI Director Kash Patel. Since his confirmation by the Republican-controlled Senate in February 2025, Patel has overseen a wave of terminations, forced departures, resignations, and demotions. The dismissals have not been limited to those photographed kneeling; in August, five other agents and top-level executives were summarily fired, including Steve Jensen, Brian Driscoll Jr., and Spencer Evans. All three, along with other former officials, have filed a 68-page lawsuit alleging that their firings were part of a “campaign of retribution” targeting those seen as insufficiently loyal to former President Donald Trump.
The lawsuit, filed against Patel, the FBI, Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Department of Justice, and the Trump administration, alleges that the dismissals were politically motivated and violated constitutional protections. According to the suit, Patel allegedly communicated that he understood it was “likely illegal” to fire agents based on cases they had worked, but claimed he was powerless to stop it because the White House and Justice Department were determined to remove all agents who had investigated Trump. The suit cites an alleged statement from Patel: “The FBI tried to put the president in jail and he hasn’t forgotten it.”
Patel, for his part, has denied any political motivation behind the firings. Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 16, 2025, he stated, “All those I’ve fired from the FBI so far failed to meet the bureau’s standards.” He has repeatedly asserted that his actions are part of a broader effort to root out political bias and restore public trust in the agency. “As Director Patel has repeatedly stated, nobody is above the law,” the FBI Agents Association acknowledged in its statement, even as it sharply criticized his approach.
In the months leading up to the firings, the agents involved had already been reassigned, according to the Associated Press. The 2024 Department of Justice review into the incident found that many of the agents tasked with protecting federal buildings during the protests lacked training in handling civil unrest. The review concluded that kneeling was used as a de-escalation tactic when agents were outnumbered by protesters and facing mounting tension. National Guard members had previously adopted the same approach during earlier protests, as reported by CNN.
Despite this context, the images of kneeling agents quickly became a lightning rod for criticism. Right-wing commentators seized on the photographs as evidence of liberal bias within the FBI, while others saw the gesture as a necessary and humane response to an explosive situation. According to sources cited by Reuters, the kneeling was “not a display of sympathy for the Black Lives Matter movement, as critics have suggested, but a gesture to ease tensions between protesters and law enforcement.”
The broader context of the firings cannot be ignored. The agents dismissed in September join a growing list of FBI personnel who have found themselves out of a job under Patel’s leadership. Many of those let go had been involved in high-profile investigations, including probes into Donald Trump’s retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack. The lawsuit filed by Driscoll, Jensen, and Evans alleges that Patel was ordered to fire anyone who had worked on criminal investigations against Trump, and that his own job depended on their removal.
The episode has left the FBI at a crossroads. Some see Patel’s actions as a necessary corrective to perceived politicization within the bureau, while others warn that the ongoing purge is undermining the agency’s independence and effectiveness. The FBI Agents Association has called on Congress to investigate the firings, arguing that the dismissals have “put the nation at greater risk of criminal activity and domestic terrorism” by eliminating experienced agents and damaging morale.
As the legal battle unfolds and congressional scrutiny intensifies, the fate of the fired agents—and the future of the FBI itself—remains uncertain. What is clear is that the fallout from a single moment of kneeling on a Washington street continues to reverberate through the highest levels of American law enforcement, with consequences that could shape the bureau for years to come.
