In other (but related) FBI news…
A group of FBI agents is suing FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi, the FBI and the Justice Department after they were terminated over their work on the investigation into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The three former agents — Jamie Garman, Blaire Toleman and Michelle Ball — were all seasoned investigators who primarily handled public corruption investigations and were assigned to special counsel Jack Smith’s team.
The lawsuit, filed in the D.C. U.S. District Court, names Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel as defendants. It is the second such lawsuit filed this month against the Justice Department by former FBI agents who were terminated over their work on the 2020 election probe, code named “Arctic Frost.”
They were doing their damn job. What were they supposed to do, say no?
Although there are only three named plaintiffs in the latest case, the lawsuit also represents a proposed class of other similarly situated former agents.
It estimates there are currently at least 50 former agents who were terminated in a similar way, and it says that number is expected to grow.
So Team Trump has been lavish in firing trained agents. How expensive.
“Defendants have fired more than 50 FBI employees on the basis of their perceived political affiliation, without providing them any modicum of due process, and while disparaging their reputations and service in public statements around the time of the firings,” the lawsuit says.
The proposed class represents a group of employees that goes beyond just those who were fired for their work on Smith’s investigations into President Trump. It also includes others who were fired for different alleged political reasons that run the gamut from being wrongfully perceived to support the Black Lives Matter movement and displaying a LGBTQ pride flag, to having friendships with disfavored employees, being targeted by far-right media personalities and having internal messages flagged by an artificial intelligence review.
A number of former FBI agents who fit into some of the categories named in the lawsuit have already filed separate complaints against the department over their termination, including a handful of former agents who knelt during racial justice protests in 2020, in an effort to fend off potential violence after the death of George Floyd.
Never you mind about effort to fend off violence, punish them anyway!
Return of the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.
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