The Trump administration led a “campaign of retribution” against a group of decorated FBI agents who were seen as opponents of the White House agenda, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in a Washington, D.C., federal court.
The suit, which names the FBI, Department of Justice, White House, and senior officials like FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, comes from three senior agents who were fired from the bureau last month. They are seeking reinstatement and declarations that their dismissals violated civil service protections.
The agents were targeted for refusing to comply with controversial demands, such as firing disfavored agents and compiling lists of personnel who had worked on Trump-related investigations, the suit claims.
One of the agents, Brian Driscoll, who served as the FBI’s acting director earlier this year, alleges that Patel suggested during an August conversation that his superiors at the White House and DOJ “directed him to fire anyone who they identified as having worked on a criminal investigation against President Donald J. Trump.”
When Driscoll told Patel such firings at the bureau would violate internal processes to prevent retaliation, Patel admitted he “knew the nature of the summary firings were likely illegal and that he could be sued and later deposed,” the suit claims.
When reached by The Independent, the FBI and DOJ declined to comment.
Elsewhere, during a January meeting with Emil Bove, a former Trump lawyer then serving in a top position at the Justice Department, Driscoll claims Bove said he was getting White House pressure to carry out mass firings at the FBI akin to those at the DOJ, where prosecutors who worked on the special counsel investigations into Trump were fired.
Bove also pressured Driscoll to assemble a list of FBI personnel associated with investigations into the January 6 pro-Trump insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the suit alleges.
As the administration began filling out its ranks of senior officials, Driscoll said an inexperienced White House aide working on the vetting process asked him how long he had been supporting Donald Trump, a question he refused to answer, citing the agency’s tradition of agents remaining nonpolitical.
The Independent has contacted the White House and Bove, who is now a federal appeals judge, for comment.
Steven Jensen, another of the agents who brought the suit, was terminated after refusing to fire an agent who worked on two special counsel investigations into Trump.
In the suit, Jensen also described alarming alleged interactions with Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, a former right-wing influencer and Secret Service agent.
“Jensen became alarmed at Bongino's intense focus on increasing online engagement through his social media profiles in an effort to change his followers' perception of the FBI," the lawsuit claims. "The emphasis that Bongino placed on creating content for his social media pages often seemed to outweigh any deliberate analysis of the investigation itself."
The third agent in the suit, Spencer Evans, alleges he was fired after attracting online ire for his handling of Covid-related accommodations at the bureau during the pandemic.
“The public’s confidence in the FBI hinges on the commitment of every FBI employee, from the newest Special Agent to the Director, to relentlessly adhere to the rule of law without fear or favor,” Evans said in a statement shared with The Independent. “Americans should demand FBI leaders who make decisions based solely on the facts of an investigation and never on the desired outcome of one.”
The FBI has long been a target of criticism from Donald Trump for its role in investigating his 2016 presidential campaign and 2020 efforts to overturn the presidential election.
A group of agents sued in February, alleging the administration was seeking to develop a list of employees involved in Trump-related investigations who could be slated to be fired.
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