The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has reportedly fired several agents who knelt during a 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest in Washington, DC.
The Associated Press (AP) cited on Saturday three unnamed individuals “familiar with the matter.” It was not immediately clear how many agents were reported to have been fired, but two people said it was approximately 20.
In a statement on Friday, the FBI Agents Association confirmed that several agents had been let go. The group claimed the decision was unlawful and urged Congress to look into the matter.
Per the AP, the association said, “As Director Patel has repeatedly stated, nobody is above the law. But rather than providing these agents with fair treatment and due process, Patel chose to again violate the law by ignoring these agents’ constitutional and legal rights instead of following the requisite process.”
The agents in the photographs were reassigned in April as President Donald Trump worked to remove “woke” practices and other politicized elements from the nation’s intelligence community, Breitbart News reported at the time.
The article cited a CNN report that said the kneeling incident occurred after protesters confronted several agents tasked with guarding federal monuments and buildings in the nation’s capital.
“FBI agents generally aren’t trained to do crowd control and deploying them to face off demonstrators raised fears of a possible deadly confrontation, current and former bureau officials said,” according to the CNN article.
The Breitbart News article featured an image showing several agents taking a knee:
Violent protests, destructive rioting, and looting broke out across the nation when George Floyd died after a police officer in Minneapolis put his knee on his neck, Breitbart News reported in May 2020.
According to the recent AP article, “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.”
