FBI Director Kash Patel testifies earlier than a Senate Intelligence Committee listening to on worldwide threats, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 25, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
WASHINGTON — Three former top FBI officials have sued FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, saying their firings have been mandated by the White House and Department of Justice and that Patel adopted their orders to maintain his job.
Patel, the go well with claimed, “explained he had to fire the people his superiors told him to fire, because his ability to keep his own job depended on the removal of the agents who worked on cases involving the President. Patel explained that there was nothing he or Driscoll could do to stop these or any other firings, because ‘the FBI tried to put the President in jail and he hasn’t forgotten it.'”
The lawsuit was filed by former FBI appearing Director Brian Driscoll; Steven Jensen, former assistant director in cost of the Washington subject workplace; and Spencer Evans, former particular agent in cost of the Las Vegas subject workplace. News of the lawsuit was first reported by NPR and MSNBC.
This lawsuit comes a month after NBC News reported that Driscoll, who briefly served as appearing director at first of President Donald Trump’s second time period, was fired. Driscoll made headlines when he resisted a Justice Department directive to flip over a listing of brokers who had labored on Jan. 6 instances.
“This request encompasses thousands of employees across the country who have supported these investigative efforts,” Driscoll wrote in a memo to FBI staff on the time. “I am one of those employees.”
Driscoll, Jensen and Evans desire a federal choose to declare their termination from the FBI “a legal nullity,” desire a “name-clearing hearing,” and wish their jobs again.
The FBI declined to touch upon the go well with. A consultant for the Justice Department didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark