FBI agents fired for kneeling at racial justice protest sue to win jobs back

Agents who kneeled in 2020 accuse Kash Patel of retaliation and say they were trying to calm volatile situation

Twelve former FBI agents fired after kneeling during a 2020 racial justice protest in Washington have sued to get their jobs back, saying their action had been intended to de-escalate a volatile situation and was not meant as a political gesture.

The agents say in their lawsuit that they were fired in September by Kash Patel, the FBI director, because they were perceived as not being politically affiliated with Donald Trump. But they say their decision to take a knee on 4 June 2020, days after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, has been misinterpreted as political expression.