FBI Director Kash Patel speaks before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his first oversight hearing, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
FBI fires agents photographed kneeling during 2020 racial justice protest, AP sources say
WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 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.
FBI Director Kash Patel speaks before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his first oversight hearing, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 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 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 terminated was not immediately clear, but two people said it was roughly 20.
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The photographs at issue showed a group of agents taking a knee in apparent solidarity during one of the demonstrations following the May 2020 killing of Floyd, a death that led to a national reckoning over policing and racial injustice and sparked widespread anger after millions of people saw video of the arrest.
An FBI spokesman declined to comment Friday.
The firings at the bureau as works to reshape the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency.
Five agents and top-level executives were known to have been 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 . Another, Brian Driscoll, served as acting FBI director in the early days of the Trump administration and 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 at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida,. A fourth, Walter Giardina, participated in high-profile investigations like the one into
A lawsuit filed by Jensen, Driscoll and another fired FBI supervisor, Spencer Evans, alleged that Patel communicated that he understood that it was 鈥渓ikely illegal鈥 to fire agents based on cases they worked but was powerless to stop it because the White House and the Justice Department were determined to remove all agents who investigated Trump.
Patel denied at a congressional hearing last week taking orders from the White House on whom to fire and said anyone who has been fired failed to meet the FBI’s standards.
