Three Fired FBI Agents Sue Patel – and Paint a Picture of Political Pressure from the White House

Three high-ranking FBI officials have filed a lawsuit that casts a harsh light on how the Trump administration dealt with the federal police. They speak of a “campaign of retribution” carried out by FBI Director Kash Patel, even though he knew the firings were “likely illegal.” In the complaint, which was filed Wednesday in federal court, Brian Driscoll, Steve Jensen and Spencer Evans seek reinstatement and accuse the bureau of allowing politically motivated purges. Driscoll, Steve Jensen and Spencer Evans were three of the five agents who were fired last month in a purge that current and former officials say has rattled the workforce. It is the first legal challenge from the top ranks of the FBI leadership against a wave of dismissals under Trump’s Republican administration that has wiped out decades of experience. Particularly controversial: according to sources close to the plaintiffs, all agents involved in investigations into the events of January 6, 2021 were to be systematically removed. This creates the impression that the reasons were not professional but part of a political purge intended to silence critical investigative threads into the storming of the Capitol. The dismissed agents level serious accusations against a law enforcement agency whose personnel decisions are determined by the White House – and guided more by politics than by public safety.

Internal FBI Memo Shows Targeted Review of January 6 Investigators

An internal memo from Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll confirms that the Justice Department ordered the dismissal or review of all FBI employees who were involved in the investigations surrounding the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The document states that the Deputy Attorney General informed eight senior FBI managers about the upcoming measures. These expressly included all current and former FBI employees who were involved in investigations or prosecutions, as well as their immediate supervisors in the field offices. An individual review was to be carried out for each affected person “to determine whether disciplinary actions or personnel decisions are necessary.” Driscoll stressed that he himself was on the list of employees to be reviewed. He admitted that this development could shake the workforce’s trust and announced that he would inform staff about further steps as soon as new instructions from the Justice Department were available.

Particularly explosive is a passage in the 65-page complaint that quotes Patel directly: he told Driscoll in conversation that he had to bow to pressure from the White House and the Justice Department because they were determined to remove all agents who had been involved in the investigations against Donald Trump. “The FBI tried to put the president in jail, and he hasn’t forgotten it,” Patel is said to have remarked. The lawsuit is considered the first open legal rebellion from the upper echelons of the bureau against political interference.

In the complaint, Driscoll emphasizes that the January 6 investigations were led by the Justice Department and that thousands of FBI employees were lawfully involved. A mass firing would violate bureau procedures and endanger national security. He made clear that he would accept such a measure only with a clear legal basis and adherence to due process. He also pointed out that he himself was on the dismissal list and that a leak of those names could expose the affected agents to serious threats.

Kash Patel is no stranger: the former staff attorney of the House Intelligence Committee was a key figure during the Mueller investigation when he co-authored the notorious “Nunes memo” intended to discredit the probe into Trump. The fact that he is now FBI Director fuels accusations that the White House has installed a loyal leadership willing to remove internal critics.

Legal experts point out that lawsuits seeking reinstatement of such high-ranking FBI officials are rare – they signal that the plaintiffs consider the evidence strong enough to risk litigation against their own agency. Former FBI directors have already warned of an “exodus of expertise” that weakens the bureau’s independence and its ability to carry out impartial law enforcement. Critics see the recent personnel decisions as another step in Trump’s effort to make the justice and security agencies politically compliant.