“[FBI Director Kash Patel] explained he had to fire the people his superiors told him to fire, because his ability to keep his own job depended on the removal of the agents who worked on cases involving the President,” the lawsuit alleges. “
Three former FBI officials have filed a lawsuit against the Bureau’s director, Kash Patel, and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
According to NBC News, the three plaintiffs, among whom is former acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll, all claim that they lost their jobs after Patel caved in to political pressure from the Trump administration. In court filings, attorneys for the former officials claim that Patel himself all but acknowledged the unlawfulness of their firing.
“[Patel] explained he had to fire the people his superiors told him to fire, because his ability to keep his own job depended on the removal of the agents who worked on cases involving the President,” the lawsuit alleges. “Patel explained that there was nothing he or Driscoll could do to stop these or any other firings, because ‘the FBI tried to put the President in jail and he hasn’t forgotten it.'”
“His decision to do so,” the claim continues, “degraded the country’s national security by firing three of the FBI’s most experienced operational leaders, each of them experts in preventing terrorism and reducing violent crime.”
Abbe Lowell, an attorney representing the three plaintiffs, cast his clients as heroes who’ve spent their lives fighting to keep Americans safe from crime, terror, and violence.
“They were willing to sacrifice those people who had done nothing all of their lives but to protect the American people, for no other reason, than to be some sort of emblem of revenge or retribution,” Lowell told National Public Radio. “Going after people to make a statement became more important than the core mission of the FBI itself.”
Driscoll, the former acting FBI director and a named plaintiff, further alleges that Patel knew that politically-motivated firings are against Bureau rules—rules that were written for the explicit purpose of ensuring that agents don’t lose their livelihoods upon being assigned sensitive investigations.
“Patel acknowledged that this would be in direct violation of internal FBI processes,” the lawsuit says. “He again commented that he knew the nature of the summary firings were likely illegal and that he could be sued and later deposed.”
If these allegations are substantiated by evidence, they would directly contradict Patel’s sworn testimony during his Senate confirmation hearing. Under oath, Patel promised that “all FBI agents will be protected against political retribution.”
Driscoll also claims that, when himself was vetted for the position of acting director by Trump’s presidential transition team, he was asked politically-charged questions as part of what he described as a political loyalty test. He was, among other things, asked to disclose who he had voted for in the 2024 election; if he had cast a ballot for any Democratic politician at any level; and whether he felt the agents who searched Trump’s Florida golf club for classified documents should be held “accountable” for simply doing their jobs.
Sources
Fired FBI agents allege retribution, incompetence at top security agency
Former top FBI officials sue, say Kash Patel fired them to stay in Trump’s good graces
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