• Twelve former FBI agents have sued the Bureau over their termination for kneeling during 2020 protests.
• The agents assert their actions were aimed at de-escalating tensions, not political support.
• The lawsuit claims their firings were a part of a campaign of retribution led by the Trump administration.
• Six of the agents were demoted prior to their firings without a conclusive internal review.
• The case raises issues of First Amendment rights and due process violations.

Twelve former FBI agents filed a lawsuit against the Bureau and its director, Kash Patel, claiming they were unlawfully terminated for kneeling during racial justice protests in 2020. The agents assert that their actions were intended to de-escalate a volatile situation caused by the protests following the murder of George Floyd, and not to express political alignment. Their collective experience spans nearly 200 years, including extensive work in crisis situations, according to NPR, Reuters, and Al Jazeera.

The lawsuit, presented in a U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., indicates that the agents were part of a broader campaign of political retaliation by the Trump administration. The plaintiffs claim they were targeted due to a perceived lack of alignment with Trump’s administration and were accused of "unprofessional conduct" in their termination letters. This situation raises concerns about the politicization of federal agencies, as pointed out by all three sources: NPR, Reuters, and Al Jazeera.

The agents also allege that their terminations were expedited without the completion of a proper internal review, which was supposed to assess the circumstances under which they took a knee. The internal review was rumored to exonerate them, as FBI officials had previously acknowledged that the agents’ actions were intended to diffuse a potentially explosive situation, a detail emphasized by NPR, Reuters, and Al Jazeera.

The controversy surrounding their firings reflects broader tensions within federal law enforcement during the Trump era, with allegations of targeted retaliation forming a crucial aspect of the case. The fired agents contend that their kneeling gesture may have prevented violence and chaos during the protests, arguing that this motive should be protected under their First Amendment rights, according to NPR, Reuters, and Al Jazeera.