FBI Director Kash Patel is being sued by three ousted federal agents, who allege he was instructed to remove any employee who’d previously investigated President Donald Trump.
The lawsuit comes from former Special Agents Steven Jensen, Spencer Evans, and Brian Driscoll, an 18-year agent who was accidentally appointed acting director of the FBI at the beginning of Trump’s second term. Before he was fired in August, Driscoll had resisted the president’s efforts to excise employees.
In a 68-page filing Wednesday, the trio alleged that their removals were unlawful, that Patel “deliberately chose to prioritize politicizing the FBI over protecting the American people,” and that he “degraded the country’s national security by firing three of the FBI’s most experienced operational leaders.”
The suit alleged that Patel told Driscoll that top officials at the White House and Department of Justice had “directed him to fire anyone who they identified as having worked on a criminal investigation against President Donald J. Trump.” Failure to do so would ensure Patel’s head was put on the chopping block next.
The suit also contained disturbing details from Driscoll’s vetting process in the early months of Trump’s second term, suggesting that the president’s team was taking unconstitutional efforts to target workers based on their politics.
Patel allegedly called Driscoll and told him that he should anticipate a vetting call from the presidential transition team. Patel told Driscoll “that as long as [he] was not prolific on social media, did not donate to the Democratic Party, and did not vote for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, the ‘vetting’ would not be an issue.”
Soon after, Driscoll received a vetting call from Paul Ingrassia, a 28-year-old lawyer Trump nominated to run the Office of Special Counsel. (Ingrassia’s confirmation hearing was postponed in July after widespread concern over his lack of experience and ties to neo-Nazis.)
Driscoll alleges that Ingrassia asked him who he had voted for in 2024, as well as the previous five elections. Driscoll was also asked when he started to support Trump. He said he refused to answer the questions.
According to the lawsuit, he was asked other questions to reveal his stance on Trump’s various legal vendettas, such as whether the federal agents who raided Mar-a-Lago should be “held accountable,” and about his views on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The lawsuit also lists Attorney General Pam Bondi, the FBI, the DOJ, and the entire executive branch as defendants. The lawsuit alleges that the trio’s firing was illegal, violating their First Amendment rights by ousting them for their perceived political affiliations, and Fifth Amendment rights by ruining their professional reputations.
The post Ousted FBI Agents Accuse Kash Patel of Breaking the Law in New Suit appeared first on New Republic.
