In a move that has stunned many inside and outside the nation’s premier law enforcement agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has fired roughly 20 agents who were photographed kneeling during Black Lives Matter protests in Washington, D.C. in 2020—a gesture the FBI Agents Association and several legal experts have called both unlawful and an alarming sign of political retribution.
The firings, which took place on Friday, September 26, 2025, were confirmed by multiple news outlets, including the Associated Press, USA TODAY, and CBS News. The agents at the center of the controversy were captured in widely circulated photographs kneeling alongside protesters during demonstrations that erupted in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. The officer was later convicted of murder, and three others were found guilty of civil rights violations, events that sparked protests across the country.
According to sources cited by CBS News and the Associated Press, the termination letters sent to the agents cited their alleged “lack of judgement” in kneeling during the protests. While the precise number of those dismissed remains somewhat unclear, two people familiar with the matter put the figure at around 20. The firings included not just rank-and-file agents but also some in supervisory roles, with several of those affected being military veterans entitled to additional statutory protections.
The kneeling itself was a flashpoint within the FBI. As reported by USA TODAY and The Washington Post, some within the bureau saw it as a necessary de-escalation tactic: the agents, outnumbered by angry protesters, were urged to kneel as a gesture of solidarity and to defuse a tense situation. National Guard members had reportedly done the same at other demonstrations, and an internal review initially found that the agents had not violated any specific policy, concluding that no disciplinary action was warranted at the time.
However, the optics of the incident—photos of FBI agents taking a knee flooding social media—sparked a backlash among critics who saw it as evidence of liberal bias within the bureau. The controversy was further inflamed when President Donald Trump, then in office, urged Attorney General Bill Barr to regain control of the streets, leading Barr to order the FBI and other agencies to step up crowd control efforts in Washington, D.C. The subsequent firings appear to be part of a broader personnel purge at the FBI, spearheaded by Director Kash Patel since his appointment under President Trump’s second term.
Patel, a longtime critic of the bureau who had previously vowed to root out what he described as political bias, has presided over a wave of terminations, forced departures, resignations, and demotions. As noted by The New York Times and USA TODAY, last month saw the dismissal of five senior agents and top-level executives, a move that current and former officials say has contributed to declining morale throughout the agency. Among those ousted was Steve Jensen, who had helped oversee investigations into the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, and Brian Driscoll Jr., a former acting FBI director who resisted Justice Department demands to identify agents involved in politically sensitive cases.
The FBI Agents Association, representing a majority of the bureau’s workforce, has condemned the dismissals in the strongest terms. In a statement quoted by CBS News and USA TODAY, the association charged that “Patel chose to again violate the law by ignoring these agents’ constitutional and legal rights instead of following the requisite process.” The group continued, “Leaders uphold the law—they don’t repeatedly break it. They respect due process, rather than hide from it. Patel’s dangerous new pattern of actions are weakening the Bureau because they eliminate valuable expertise and damage trust between leadership and the workforce, and make it harder to recruit and retain skilled agents—ultimately putting our nation at greater risk.”
The association has called on Congress to investigate what it describes as a “dangerous pattern” of ignoring federal law to force out experienced investigators. Bureau veterans and legal experts echo these concerns, saying high-performing agents are being dismissed without cause or due process. The firings have also prompted lawsuits from several former senior officials, including Driscoll, Jensen, and Spencer Evans, who allege that their terminations were politically motivated retribution for investigating Trump, his advisers, or his supporters. Their lawsuit, filed earlier this month, accuses Patel and the Trump administration of violating their constitutional and legal rights in an effort to turn the FBI into an arm of the White House.
Patel, for his part, has denied that any of the firings were politically motivated. Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, he insisted that all those dismissed “failed to meet the FBI’s standards.” In a social media post on Friday, Patel doubled down on his reform agenda, declaring that he was “finding and producing materials exposing corruption at record levels.”
Still, the timing and context of the firings have raised eyebrows. According to The Associated Press, the agents who knelt during the 2020 protests had already been reassigned last spring before being terminated this September. Several female agents in supervisory positions who were pictured kneeling were also reassigned in April 2025, indicating a pattern of targeting those associated with the protests. The internal review that initially cleared the agents of wrongdoing now stands in stark contrast to their abrupt dismissal.
The fallout has been swift and severe. Morale within the FBI has reportedly plummeted, with many agents expressing fears about job security and the direction of the bureau. Recruitment and retention of skilled personnel have become more challenging, as the firings send a chilling message to those who might otherwise consider a career in federal law enforcement.
The broader implications of the purge extend beyond the walls of the FBI. As noted by USA TODAY, the controversy has become a lightning rod for debates over the politicization of federal law enforcement, the rights of public employees to express themselves—even in the context of de-escalating tense public demonstrations—and the future of the bureau itself under its current leadership.
As Congress considers whether to heed the FBI Agents Association’s call for an investigation, the fate of the fired agents and the culture of the bureau hang in the balance. For now, the agency faces a period of unprecedented scrutiny and uncertainty, with questions swirling about its independence, its leadership, and its ability to fulfill its mission in a deeply divided nation.
With the dust far from settled, the firings have left the FBI at a crossroads, its future direction uncertain as it navigates the storm of internal dissent and public controversy.
