FBI Fires Agents For Kneeling During 2020 Protests
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has officially fired over a dozen special agents who were photographed kneeling in 2020 during racial justice protests following George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police.
Sources told AP, Reuters, and ABC News that this decision comes after years of quiet demotions and shady reassignments. But now—in September 2025—the ax officially dropped on about 20 agents, many of whom were highly decorated, respected, and even military veterans.
On June 4, 2020, the nation was still reeling from Floyd’s death.
Demonstrations lit up cities coast to coast, and in the heart of D.C., a group of FBI agents were spotted kneeling with protesters—a move that at the time was seen by many as a peaceful, unifying gesture.
But not everyone in the Bureau felt that way.
Some internal watchdogs and higher-ups said it looked too “political.” And even though the FBI said no rules were broken back then, that image lived rent-free in the heads of MAGA—and apparently on someone’s firing checklist.
Fast forward to early 2025—some of those same kneeling agents got moved out of their high-ranking positions. Agents working in counterintelligence, cybercrime, and counterterrorism found themselves in jobs that many insiders called dead-end or retaliatory placements.
Some say it wasn’t a coincidence. It was a setup for what was coming next.
Sources say that FBI Director Kash Patel—a known Trump loyalist—signed off on the firings, calling them “performance-based.” But nobody’s buying that.
Those terminated included veterans, special ops alumni, and even former executives. Some had more than 20 years in service.
Lawsuits
Now, lawsuits are piling up.
Several fired agents—including ex-acting FBI director Brian Driscoll—are suing the Bureau, claiming the move was pure political retaliation. One suit even alleges Patel admitted some firings were shady, but claimed DOJ and White House pressure forced his hand.
Meanwhile, Patel denies everything, blaming “low performance.” But that’s a hard pill to swallow when some of the fired agents had top-level clearance and clean records.
