Ex-Top FBI Officials Sue Kash Patel, Say He 'Fired Anyone' Who Probed Donald Trump

(MENAFN- Live Mint) Three former senior FBI agents who were abruptly fired in August reportedly accused its director, Kash Patel, of politicising the agency to please his superiors, including President Donald Trump, in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday.

Who are the ex-top FBI officials suing Kash Patel

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Brian Driscoll, Steve Jensen and Spencer Evans, three of five agents known to have been fired last month.

Among them, Driscoll had served as the acting FBI director during the first month of Trump's second term, until Patel took over.

Meanwhile, Steve Jensen is the former assistant director of the Washington field office, and Spencer Evans is the former top official in the Las Vegas field office.

What the lawsuit alleges

The three men described their August 8 dismissal by Patel as "illegal" and demand to be reinstated, according to the lawsuit.

They alleged they were dismissed in a "campaign of retribution" that targeted officials viewed as insufficiently loyal, Reuters reported.

The lawsuit alleged that FBI Director Kash Patel said he had been ordered to fire anyone who had worked on a criminal investigation against President Donald Trump, and that his own job depended on their removal.

“The FBI tried to put the president in jail and he hasn't forgotten it," Patel told Driscoll, according to the lawsuit.

“Patel not only acted unlawfully but deliberately chose to prioritise politicising the FBI over protecting the American people,” the suit said, as per the Associated Press.

It added that“his decision to do so degraded the country's national security by firing three of the FBI's most experienced operational leaders, each of them experts in preventing terrorism and reducing violent crime.”

The FBI declined to comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

What the former FBI officials demanded

Driscoll sought to shield FBI employees who had been investigating people who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a failed bid to overturn Trump's election defeat.

As per reports, more than two dozen FBI employees have been forced out or fired since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, in a wide-ranging campaign of retribution that has also targeted federal prosecutors, national security officials and others who worked on investigations or criminal cases against him.

The FBI Agents Association said in a statement that most special agents are not permitted by law to appeal personnel actions to the Merit Systems Protection Board, and the lawsuit underscores the need for Congress to extend those protections to all bureau employees.

Trump has repeatedly blamed the criminal proceedings against him on the alleged weaponisation of the Justice Department by his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden's administration.

"Our predecessors turned the Department of Justice into the Department of Injustice," Trump said during a speech at the department earlier this year. "I stand before you today to declare that those days are over, and they are never going to come back," he added.

(With inputs from agencies)

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