WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI has fired agents who were photographed kneeling during a racial justice protest in Washington that followed the 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, three people familiar with the matter said Friday.
The bureau had reassigned the agents last spring but has since fired them, said the people, who insisted on anonymity to discuss personnel matters with The Associated Press.
The number of FBI employees fired was not immediately clear, but two people said it was roughly 20.
The photographs at issue showed a group of agents taking a knee during one of the demonstrations following the May 2020 killing of Floyd, a death that sparked widespread anger after millions of people saw video of his arrest. It led to a national reckoning over policing and racial injustice.
The firings of the agents who knelt come amid a broader personnel purge at the bureau under Director Kash Patel.
Five agents and top-level executives were known to have been summarily fired last month in a wave of ousters that current and former officials say has contributed to declining morale.
One of those, Steve Jensen, helped oversee investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Another, Brian Driscoll, served as acting director in the early days of the Trump administration and resisted Justice Department demands to supply the names of agents who investigated Jan. 6. A third, Chris Meyer, was incorrectly rumored on social media to have participated in the investigation into Trump’s retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
A lawsuit filed last week by three of the fired agents alleged that Patel understood that the firings were “likely illegal” but had to carry them out because he was ordered to do so from the White House. Patel has denied taking orders from the White House on whom to fire and has said anyone who has been fired failed to meet the FBI’s standards.
An FBI spokesman declined to comment Friday.
