Ousted FBI leader sue Trump administration
By: Josh Meyer
USA Today
..... A federal lawsuit field September 10 [2025] alleges FBI Director Kash Patel illegally fired top FIB executives on orders from the Trump administration as part of a campaign to turn the nation's premiere law enforcement agency into a political arm of the White House.
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Former acting Director Brian Driscoll Jr. and two other ousted FBI senior officials filed the 68-page lawsuit against Patel and the FBI, Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Justice Department and the Trump administration. Driscoll, Steven Jensen and Spencer Evans allege in the suit that they were targets of politically motivated retribution and had their constitutional and legal rights violated.
..... Once he took over at there FBI, they allege, "Patel's actions stood in stark contrast to his sworn testimony during his confirmation hearing before the Senate judiciary Committee. There, he assured the Committee and the country that 'all FBI employees will be protected against political retribution.
..... The FBI, Justice Department and White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment from USA Today.
..... The lawsuit alleges Patel acknowledged to Driscoll that firing agents without cause would violate internal FBI rules and probably federal law. Driscoll was fired after refusing to help gather names of FBI personnel involved in investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the u>s. Capitol.
..... "this is not a selfish endeavor," Driscoll said in a news release accompanying the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington.
..... The FBI has been "completely politicized by individuals whose interests are contrary to the pursuit of law and order and the protection of our country's national security," Mark Zaid, one of the lawyers on the case, told USA Today. "This lawsuit demonstrates how the current administration has sought to destroy the FBI, to have committed individual wrongs, against the president, and especially to create chaos to ensure their imagined 'deep state' enemies do not rise up against them."
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In their lawsuit, the three former officials provide pages of detail about incidents and conversations that they say show their abrupt terminations in August 2025 were unconstitutional, retaliatory and part of a broader pattern of vengeance-based, political retribution within the Bureau.
..... The suit also alleges Emil Bove, then acting deputy attorney general, not only demanded a list of all FBI personnel associated with January 6 [2021] investigations, but said terminations would be based on a subjective assessment of loyalty to Trump's agenda.
..... When Driscoll challenged this as unlawful, the lawsuit says, Bove said the DOJ was receiving pressure from the White House.
..... Dan Bongino, the former deputy Director of the FBI, pressured Jensen - then an assistant FBI director who oversaw its Washington field office - to fire a veteran agent based simply on unfounded allegations about his work on a case against a former Trump associate, according to the suit.