The FBI has fired a group of its agents photographed kneeling on the street during a racial justice protest in Washington in 2020, in the aftermath of George Floyd's killing by police in Minneapolis, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.
The terminations came amid a spate of dismissals within the ranks of the nation's most prominent law enforcement agency since Kash Patel, a loyalist of President Donald Trump, was confirmed by the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate in February to lead the FBI.
It was not clear precisely how many FBI agents were terminated on Friday.
The FBI Agents Association, an advocacy group, issued a statement on Friday saying it "strongly condemns today's unlawful termination of more than a dozen FBI Special Agents," but made no mention of what may have precipitated their firings.
The three sources who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity put the number of terminations at between 15 and 22, with an unspecified portion being among those who came under fierce criticism from right-wing commentators for taking a knee during the demonstration.
The agents in question, pictured in photographs and videos of the incident that went viral, were not kneeling in a display of sympathy for the Black Lives Matter movement, as critics have suggested, but did so in a gesture to ease tensions between protesters and law enforcement, the sources said.
Some crowd-control measures employed during those protests were more aggressive. Officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets to clear demonstrators near the White House before Trump, then in his first term as president, walked across Lafayette Square to a nearby church and posed for photographs holding a Bible.
Earlier this month, former FBI acting director Brian Driscoll and two other former senior officials who were fired without cause in August sued the Trump administration, alleging they were dismissed in a "campaign of retribution" that targeted officials viewed as insufficiently loyal.
The lawsuit alleges that Patel said he had been ordered to fire anyone who had worked on a criminal investigation against Trump, and that his own job depended on their removal.
“The FBI tried to put the president in jail and he hasn’t forgotten it," Patel told Driscoll, according to the lawsuit.
Steve Jensen, the former assistant director of the Washington field office, and Spencer Evans, the former top official in the Las Vegas field office, are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
A torpedo from a U.S. submarine sunk an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka, U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth told reporters as ...
A U.S. submarine strike sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka, leaving at least 80 dead, the country&...
The election of Iran’s next supreme leader could provide an opportunity to end the ongoing regional war involving Israel, the U.S. and ...
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the United States is making gains in its conflict with Iran after a key I...
The U.S. Department of Defense has released a video of a submarine strike on an Iranian warship off the southern Sri Lankan coast. At least 80 peop...
A U.S. submarine strike sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka, leaving at least 80 dead, the country’s deputy foreign minister said. Meanwhile, Iran postponed the funeral of its late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to state media.
The election of Iran’s next supreme leader could provide an opportunity to end the ongoing regional war involving Israel, the U.S. and Iran, Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the United States is making gains in its conflict with Iran after a key Iranian naval target was destroyed, confirming that the strike was carried out by a U.S. submarine off the coast of Sri Lanka. Rescue efforts are now under way for the ship’s crew.
The U.S. Department of Defense has released a video of a submarine strike on an Iranian warship off the southern Sri Lankan coast. At least 80 people died in the U.S. attack on the vessel, Sri Lanka's Deputy Foreign Minister said.
U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. military has enough stockpiled weapons to fight wars "forever"; in a social media post late on Monday. The remarks came hours before conflict in Iran and the Middle East entered its fourth day.
U.S. first lady, Melania Trump chaired a UN Security Council meeting on children and education in conflict on Monday (2 March), a move criticised by Iran as hypocritical following U.S. and Israeli strikes that triggered a UN warning about risks to children.
A torpedo from a U.S. submarine sunk an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka, U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth told reporters as the Iranian conflcit entered its fifth day on Wednesday.
The U.S. embassy in Riyadh was hit by two drones resulting in a limited fire and some material damage, the kingdom's defence ministry said in a post on X on Tuesday, citing an initial assessment.
Shahid Motahari Sub-Speciality Hospital in northern Tehran and parts of the Golestan Palace were bombed on day two of the U.S.‑Israel strikes. AnewZ Touraj Shiralilou is in Iran's capital city and said that the facility was flattened in an airstrike.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the United States is making gains in its conflict with Iran after a key Iranian naval target was destroyed, confirming that the strike was carried out by a U.S. submarine off the coast of Sri Lanka. Rescue efforts are now under way for the ship’s crew.
Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief. Here are the top news stories for the 4th of February, covering the latest developments you need to know.
Strikes across the Middle East are intensifying, fuelling travel disruption, driving up global energy prices and forcing diplomatic missions to shut their doors.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said the United States has a “virtually unlimited supply” of munitions and is capable of sustaining military action indefinitely, as the conflict with Iran entered its fourth day.
The United Nations has called for an investigation into a deadly attack on a girls’ primary school in Iran, which Iranian officials say has killed more than 100 children. The U.S. has said its forces “would not” deliberately target a school.
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