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.
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U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. was talking to the right people in Iran to make a deal on Tuesday (24 March), as Pakistan's Prime Minister offered to host peace talks between the two countries to bring about an end to the conflict.
Pakistan offered to host talks between Iran and the U.S. to bring about an end to the Middle East conflict on Tuesday (24 March), as U.S. President Donald Trump repeated that Washington was speaking to Tehran, despite the White House downplaying earlier comments by Trump saying the same thing.
Voting has ended in Denmark’s parliamentary election, with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen seeking a third term after a campaign shaped by tensions with the U.S. over Greenland and mounting domestic concerns.
Türkiye is pursuing a cautious approach to the escalating Middle East conflict while maintaining regional ties, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Tuesday, warning against actions that could deepen instability.
The pilot and co-pilot of an Air Canada Express regional jet were killed after it collided with a fire truck while landing at New York's LaGuardia airport late on Sunday, in an incident that closed the airport, authorities and U.S. media said.
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Violent clashes broke out between police and opposition protesters in Tirana on Sunday (22 March) as demonstrators were demanding the resignation of the Albanian government following corruption allegations against the deputy prime minister.
Afghan authorities say Pakistani jets entered northern Afghanistan, while Pakistan insists its actions target terrorism, highlighting continued strain after a temporary Eid ceasefire ended.
Voting has ended in Denmark’s parliamentary election, with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen seeking a third term after a campaign shaped by tensions with the U.S. over Greenland and mounting domestic concerns.
Eurozone private sector growth almost stalled this month, a key survey showed on Tuesday, adding to evidence that the bloc is already feeling economic fallout from the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran, with inflation rising and growth slowing.
China is raising domestic petrol and diesel prices under temporary measures to manage a sharp surge in global oil costs, aiming to support fuel suppliers while maintaining market stability during a period of heightened volatility.
Russia launched drones and missiles overnight on Tuesday at Ukraine, killing at least three people, damaging houses and triggering fires, Ukrainian officials said.
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Monday (23 March) that Britain must plan for the possibility that the Iran war could continue for some time, and added that he had no "meaningful concerns" about energy supply.
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