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The FBI has fired nearly two dozen agents who were photographed kneeling amid the George Floyd protests in 2020, according to reports.
An estimated 20 agents have been dismissed, according to The Associated Press, which reported that many of those terminated had already been reassigned to lower-profile duties in the years since.
Reuters framed the number of fired agents as “more than a dozen.”
The photographs at issue reportedly showed a group of agents taking a knee during one of the demonstrations in Washington, D.C., following the May 2020 killing of Floyd in Minneapolis.
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The FBI has fired agents who were photographed kneeling outside headquarters during the 2020 George Floyd protests, a move critics call political retribution. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
Kneeling was widely used by protesters and supporters after Floyd’s death to signal sympathy with the Black Lives Matter movement and a call for racial justice.
Floyd, a Black man, died in Minneapolis after a White police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes.
The FBI declined to comment to Fox News when asked about the reported terminations.
The FBI Agents Association condemned the firings as “unlawful,” warning they violated civil service protections.
“This is a dangerous precedent,” the group said, arguing the bureau punished employees for a split-second de-escalation decision in a volatile moment.
FBI agents kneel with demonstrators during a protest on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., on June 4, 2020, over the death of George Floyd. It is not clear if the agents pictured here were among those dismissed. (AP/Jose Luis Magana)
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Critics inside and outside the bureau say the firings reflect a purge under FBI Director Kash Patel, who took over during President Donald Trump’s second term and vowed to overhaul the bureau’s culture.
The Washington Post reported that Patel’s allies have framed the kneeling incident as evidence of political bias in the ranks.
Agents involved in the kneeling said they were caught between orders to avoid confrontation and the reality of facing angry crowds, sources told Reuters.
“This wasn’t politics — it was survival,” one former agent told Reuters.
Demonstrators march toward the U.S. Capitol during a protest over the death of George Floyd in Washington, D.C., in 2020. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
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The firings come amid a broader personnel purge at the bureau as Patel works to reshape the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency.
Five agents and top-level executives were known to have been summarily fired last month in a wave of ousters.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.