Three former senior FBI officials filed a lawsuit against FBI Director Kash Patel, pursuing reinstatement to their previous jobs.
The FBI ousted several senior officials tied to cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot last month as part of a bureau purge.
The former FBI employees who filed the lawsuit — Brian Driscoll, Steve Jensen and Spencer Evans — say they were terminated as part of retaliation efforts coordinated by top officials in the Trump administration.
Mr. Driscoll, who briefly served as acting director during Mr. Patel’s Senate confirmation, had announced his termination in an email to FBI employees.
He upset Justice Department officials in the Trump administration when he refused requests to turn over the names of all agents who worked on Jan. 6 cases.
Mr. Driscoll, Mr. Jensen, the former assistant director in charge of the Washington field office, and Mr. Evans, the former special agent in charge of the Las Vegas field office, alleged in the 68-page suit that Mr. Patel and others “initiated a campaign of retribution against Plaintiffs for what Defendants deemed to be a failure to demonstrate sufficient political loyalty.”
“His decision to do so 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,” the lawsuit states.
The suit also says the terminations seem to have been sent down by those more senior in the Trump administration.
Mr. Driscoll says in the suit that the FBI director did not contest the account of a conversation both men had and that Mr. Patel said he knew the firings were probably illegal.
“Patel explained that 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 suit alleges, detailing a conversation between Mr. Driscoll and Mr. Patel not long before the terminations.
The suit goes on to say that Mr. Patel said he could not stop the firings because “the FBI tried to put the President in jail and he hasn’t forgotten it.”
“When Driscoll explained that firing employees based on case assignments would be in direct violation of internal FBI processes meant to adjudicate adverse actions and prevent retaliation based on case assignments, Patel said that he understood that and he knew the nature of the summary firings were likely illegal and that he could be sued and later deposed,” the suit noted.
The FBI declined to comment for this story.
