The Purge - How Trump's FBI fires kneeling agents and rebuilds a federal agency

It is an image that carried symbolic power for many in the summer of 2020: FBI agents in plain clothes kneeling during a demonstration in Washington - a quiet signal, an attempt to de-escalate amid the anger after the killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis. Millions of people had seen the videos of the act at the time, a nation was in shock, and even federal officials felt compelled to take a stand. Five years later this gesture has become a political death sentence. Around 20 FBI agents who are seen in these photos were dismissed from the agency according to several insiders. What at first seemed like an internal reshuffle has under Director Kash Patel turned into a systematic purge. For the FBI Agents Association, the powerful professional association, the measure is "unlawful" and a breach of constitutional rights. The association speaks of targeted political punishment - and now demands an investigation by Congress.

The official line of the director sounds different. "Nobody is above the law," Patel emphasized repeatedly in hearings. Whoever was dismissed had not met the agency's standards. But behind the scenes a different picture emerges: an FBI that is being rebuilt from within under pressure from the Trump administration. It is no longer just about discipline but about political cleansing. The names of those most recently dismissed read like a chronicle of those who had exposed themselves in central investigations against Trump or his confidants. Steve Jensen, who helped organize the investigations into the storming of the Capitol. Brian Driscoll, at times acting director of the FBI, who refused to hand over the names of investigators. Chris Meyer, about whom right-wing networks falsely spread that he had been involved in the Mar-a-Lago case. Walter Giardina, known from investigative work against Trump's adviser Peter Navarro.

All of them are gone. And many are now suing the government, supported by Spencer Evans, another senior official. The accusations are sharp: Kash Patel is said to have admitted himself that these dismissals were "probably illegal," but that he had no room for maneuver - the White House and the Justice Department had dictated the line. Patel vehemently denies this, but the congressional hearings show how deep the fractures run. For those affected this is more than career damage. It is about the message that certain attitudes - whether kneeling as a gesture of solidarity or adherence to the rule of law - are no longer tolerated. For the FBI Agents Association it is clear: these dismissals are part of a "larger personnel purge" that destroys confidence in the agency and undermines the independence of the federal police.

The consequences are already noticeable. Morale and loyalty in the FBI are sinking, while the climate of fear and distrust is growing. Whoever works critically risks not only reassignment but the end of their career. The photos from the summer of 2020, once a symbol of empathy, have under Kash Patel and Donald Trump become a case file. Thus an agency that, in the tradition of Hoover, has always wavered between politics and the rule of law, now becomes an instrument of the president. What Trump calls a "Radical Left Scam" finds its counterpart inside the institution: the hunt for those who think differently, act differently, refuse to bow. The FBI, once a guarantor of continuity in the state apparatus, is experiencing one of the deepest turning points in its history - not because of corruption or failure, but because of the kneeling of a few in the summer of justice.