Washington (AP) – Three high-ranking FBI staff According to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday to restore agents, he was fired in a “retaliation campaign” conducted by a director who was under political pressure from the Trump administration, who knows better so he can maintain his position, but to keep his own position.
The complaint claims that Director Kash Patel He was shown directly to one of the ousted agents, Brian Driscoll, who knew that the fire was “highly likely to be illegal,” but he couldn’t stop them as the White House and the Justice Department decided to eliminate all agents who helped investigate President Donald Trump. He quoted Patel in a conversation last month to tell Driscoll, “The FBI tried to put the president in prison, but he hasn’t forgotten it.”
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Driscoll, Steve Jensen and Spencer Evans. This is three of five agents known to have been fired last month for purges that current and former officials say made the workforce unsettling. This represents a legal challenge to flooding under Trump’s Republican administration, which wiped out decades of experience from the top ladders of the FBI leadership ladder. The fired agents levelled sleazy allegations of law enforcement, whose staff were shaped by the White House and led more by politics than public safety.
“Patel not only acted illegally, but also deliberately chose to prioritize politicization of the FBI over protecting Americans,” the lawsuit says. “By firing three of the FBI’s most experienced operational leaders, his decision has degraded the country’s national security, each of whom is an expert in preventing terrorism and reducing violent crime.”
An FBI spokesperson declined to comment after the agent was ousted.
Reputation damage concerns
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Washington, held by a judge and a large ju court. opposed the Trump administration’s initiative Charging is decided. He is named Patel, the accused Attorney General Pam BondyFBI, Department of Justice, and the President’s Office of Enforcement.
In addition to reinstatement, the lawsuit calls for a forum for them to clear their names, among other remedies, a backpay award, an order to declare illegal fire for fire, and even a forum for them to clear their names. Patel said in an interview with the FOX News Channel two weeks after its completion, it was revealed that “everyone” had used the weapon.
“This false and defamatory public smear of atonf losses was injunctive to the professional reputation of each plaintiff, suggesting that they are not loyal and non-political law enforcement officers, further damaging the plaintiff’s current government employment loss, as well as the prospects of future employment,” the lawsuit states.
Anxious requests from leadership
The three fired officials participated and overseen some of the FBI’s most complex tasks, including investigating international terrorism, according to the lawsuit.
“These are the pinnacles of Rank and File’s eagerness, and now the FBI is deprived of not only its examples but its very important operational capabilities,” says Chris Mattey, one of the agent’s lawyers. “Their FBI fires together put all Americans at greater risk than they did when Brian Driscoll, Steve Jensen and Spencer Evans were in leadership positions.”
Another lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said the lawsuit shows the FBI leadership “executes political orders to punish law enforcement for doing their work.”
Perhaps the most prominent of the plaintiffs is Driscoll, the former commander of the FBI’s Specialist Hostage Rescue Service. The then director Christopher Ray resigned. January and Patel has been confirmed February.
In that job, he had a well-known standoff with a senior Justice Department official on the first day of the Trump administration. Emile BoveBove’s request for a list of agents who worked on the January 6, 2021 survey. Riots by a mob of Trump supporters The US Capitol. Driscoll resisted the order in a conflict that led Bove to accuse him of “disobedience.”
Driscoll survived the conflict, taking another high-profile position of leading the FBI’s critical incident response group or CIRG into crisis and overseeing the CIRG. However, a complaint last month saw a new issue occurring when social media misidentified on social media as a litigation agent for an investigation, if the duties that involve flying the station’s private jet were mistakenly identified on social media. Hoarding Trump’s confidential documents at his Mar-A-Lago Estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
According to the complaint, Dorisco is said to have been unable to fly Patel on an FBI plane. Driscoll responded to the request, but bald when Meyer refused to strip him of his pilot’s duties completely and was told the Trump administration wanted him to fire.
The lawsuit recounts conversations from early August, when Driscoll told Patel that it is illegal to fire someone based on a case assignment. According to the lawsuit, Patel said he understood that his actions were “highly likely to be illegal” but that his boss had to fire someone who wanted him “because his ability to maintain his own job relied on removing agents who worked on cases involving the president.”
Meyer was later fired, but is not among the plaintiffs in Wednesday’s lawsuit.
Jensen, one of the plaintiffs, was chosen by Patel to run the Bureau’s Washington Field Office despite backlash from Trump’s loyalists. Capitol Riot. The lawsuit says that even if Jensen was publicly defended by FBI leadership, he was told by Patel and the Deputy Director. Dan Bongino That they had spent “many political capital” to keep him in that position.
In May, Bongino said he had to fire an agent assigned to his office, who was working on Trump-related cases, as well as investigate officials from both major political parties. That agent, Walter Giardina, was among the five fired people.
Another plaintiff, Evans, says he was looking for retaliation over his leadership role in the FBI’s human resources department during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
That position has been exposed to a barrage of criticism from former agents who say Evans regularly aired his complaints about Evans on social media and maintained access to Patel.
Evans was among senior executives who were told to leave or be fired in late January, but he was given a reprieve and allowed to remain in his job as a leader in the Las Vegas field office. Despite his relief that he was supported by Patel and Bongino, he was told he had to leave his position in May.
On August 6th, Evans was cramming a new FBI assignment in Huntsville, Alabama, but was informed that he had been fired. The cause stated was a “lack of rationality and enthusiasm” in implementing the Covid-19 protocol, but the lawsuit states that it does not recall rejecting its request for immunization exemption.
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