FBI agents walk outside the home of the former White House national security adviser John Bolton as it is searched by FBI, in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S., August 22, 2025. REUTERS/Tasos Katopodis
Social media blasted the FBI for firing agents photographed kneeling during a racial justice protest in Washington DC that followed the 2020 murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.
The bureau last spring had reassigned roughly 20 agents but has since fired them, according to three anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
The photographs at issue showed a group of agents taking the knee during one of the demonstrations following Floyd’s murder, which led to a national reckoning over policing and racial injustice and sparked widespread anger after millions of people saw video of the arrest and violence.
The kneeling had angered some in the FBI but was also understood as a possible de-escalation tactic during a period of protests, designed to show crowds that Black lives do indeed matter. The FBI Agents Association condemned the firings as unlawful, and called on Congress to investigate the firings as another indication of FBI director Kash Patel’s disregard for the legal rights of bureau employees.
“As Director Patel has repeatedly stated, nobody is above the law,” the association said. “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 employee association was not the only critic this week, with social media also blasting the move.
“No official reason given for the change, but punishing peacekeeping sends an ominous message,” said civil rights attorney Ben Crump on X. Crump is known for handling suits involving the family members of George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown.
“These agents are clearly kneeling in a de-escalating formation, not one of honor,” said another commenter on X. “Whomever fired them should be both fired and sued.”
Still another critic described the kneeling agents as using a “a classic de-escalation technique. FBI trainers know this.” The commenter added that FBI Director Kash Patal “is inept and incompetent.”
Read the full Guardian report at this link.
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