Three former FBI officials allege they were fired from their positions over insufficient loyalty to Donald Trump in a new lawsuit Wednesday.
Former FBI acting director Brian Driscoll, Washington field office head Steven Jensen and Las Vegas field office head Spencer Evans claim they were subject to loyalty tests and pressured to fire FBI agents who worked on investigations into the president.
The lawsuit names current FBI director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi, the FBI, the U.S. Department of Justice, the office of the President, and the United States of America as defendants.
Driscoll alleges that before becoming the FBI’s acting director in the first month of the Trump administration, attorney Paul Ingrassia, then Trump’s liaison to the Department of Justice, asked him questions including, “Who did you vote for?” “When did you start supporting President Trump?” “Have you voted for a Democrat in the last five elections?” and “Do you agree that the FBI agents who stormed Mar-a-Lago … should be held accountable?”
During his one month as acting director, Driscoll, a two-decade veteran of the FBI, was pressured by then-acting deputy attorney Emil Bove to reveal the investigators behind the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot probe. He refused, and was accused by Bove of insubordination.
Driscoll was moved to another role after Patel was confirmed in February. He alleges that Kash Patel fired him in August because he refused to fire an agent who was involved in the 2022 raid on Mar-a-Lago.
The lawsuit reads, “Patel then stated that his own job depended on the removal of the agents who worked on the cases against the President, regardless of whether the agents chose to work on those cases or not.”
Jensen claims he was also fired for refusing to fire an FBI agent who was the target of right-wing critics online. Evans claims he was fired for being too stingy in granting FBI agents COVID-19 exemptions during the pandemic.
“Patel not only acted unlawfully but deliberately chose to prioritize politicizing the F.B.I. over protecting the American people,” allege the trio.
The defendants are asking a judge to reinstate them to the FBI and declare their dismissals in violation of federal civil service protections.
The FBI declined to comment on the lawsuit.
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