The lawsuit alleges the FBI agent was fired for defusing crowd tensions during 2020 protests for what was seen as anti-Trump stance.
Published December 8, 2025
Twelve former FBI agents have filed a lawsuit alleging wrongful termination by President Donald Trump’s administration for kneeling during racial justice protests in Washington, D.C., in 2020.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal district court, alleges the employees were fired as part of a politicized “retaliation campaign” by the Trump administration over their sympathies with the protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd.
Operatives said the kneeling during the protests was meant to de-escalate a tense situation and was not intended as political support. The controversy over their firings has drawn further attention to the Trump administration’s efforts to enact retaliation against perceived political opponents.
In recent months, a federal prosecutor who worked on President Trump’s investigation has been fired, as has a federal employee who displayed an LGBTQ flag at work.
The complaint says Trump had attacked the agents, nine of whom were women, on social media before returning to the White House in 2024, and that FBI Director Kash Patel intended to fire them, even though a previous investigation by FBI officials had concluded that the agents were taking the knee to de-escalate tensions, not to assist.
“Defendants specifically targeted Plaintiff because Plaintiff took advantage of the de-escalation against civilians whom Defendants perceived to be opposed to or affiliated with President Trump,” the complaint states.
The report says the operatives may have encountered a hostile crowd and avoided a “deadly confrontation” that “could be comparable to the Boston Massacre of 1770” by taking a knee, a reference to the shooting of protesters by British troops in Boston before the American Revolutionary War. However, in photos of the incident, the agents appear relaxed and there is little indication of serious danger.
Their termination letters accused the 12 employees of “unprofessional conduct and lack of impartiality” and the FBI’s “use of weapons.”
