Lawsuit: Directives to Fire FBI Agents ‘Were Coming from the White House’

Ex-agents allege politically motivated firings and retribution

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Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel speaks alongside Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and President Donald Trump during a press briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House Aug. 11, 2025. Francis Chung/POLITICO/AP

FBI Director Kash Patel allegedly told a top agency official that he fired numerous special agents because “the FBI tried to put the president in jail and he hasn’t forgotten it,” according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by three former agents.

The lawsuit states that the Trump administration is exercising unprecedented control of the nation’s premier law enforcement agency and illegally directing the firing of FBI personnel.

For example, when the FBI last month fired supervisory special agent Christopher Meyer — a military veteran pilot who routinely flew the bureau’s hostage and rescue team on sensitive missions and had recently begun flying Patel in the bureau’s Gulfstream G550 jet — social media pressure appeared to play a role.