The Federal Bureau of Investigation has reassigned several agents who were photographed kneeling with demonstrators during a 2020 protest in the wake of police killing of George Floyd, people briefed on the matter told CNN.
The reassignments, viewed as demotions by many inside the FBI, come nearly five years after the episode that ignited controversy inside the bureau. FBI officials offered no explanation for changing the roles to less coveted positions for the agents, according to sources.
The FBI declined to comment to CNN, citing its policy to not discuss personnel matters. Agents affected didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The targeting of the kneelers is part of a broader effort by the new FBI leaders to make good on promises to root out what President Donald Trump has called “woke” and politicized elements inside the agency.
A former FBI official said punishing agents involved in the incident now raises concern that the bureau is bypassing its regular disciplinary process, which can take months and even more than a year to review incidents.
“This notion that the bureau would go after these people, it’s just disgusting,” the former official said.
After quickly ousting senior FBI leaders, the Justice Department has said it is reviewing the conduct of more than 1,500 agents associated with cases that have found disfavor in the new Trump era, including investigations of the president and his allies. FBI agents who executed the search warrant on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and who worked on January 6, 2021-related cases have been bracing for possible retribution, current and former agents said.
The kneeling incident in Washington, DC, occurred after a group of agents assigned to protect federal monuments and buildings were confronted by a group of protesters. FBI agents generally aren’t trained to do crowd control and deploying them to face off demonstrators raised fears of a possible deadly confrontation, current and former bureau officials said.
Some of the agents that day, recalling another recent incident in which National Guard soldiers had handled a similar confrontation, decided to try kneeling as a way to deescalate tensions. It worked, and the protesters moved on.
But later, after photos emerged, a furious reaction erupted inside the FBI. Some of the agents pictured kneeling were ostracized and personally attacked by their peers, current and former agents said. Other agents rallied to their cause, thankful that the incident didn’t devolve into violence that could have done more harm to the bureau’s reputation.
Top FBI officials reviewed the incident and determined that given the context, there was no violation of policy, current and former officials said.
The reaction inside the FBI mirrored the broader reaction to the protests around the country and have since become enmeshed in the broader political divide in the US. And in the years since, congressional Republicans have made the incident one of a number of issues in their conflict with the bureau’s former leadership.
Protests over racism and heavy-handed policing tactics that summer had erupted across the country after Floyd’s death. The reaction was fueled by footage showing police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes as Floyd pleaded for help, saying he couldn’t breathe.
In Washington, President Donald Trump urged Attorney General Bill Barr to regain control of the streets. Barr ordered the FBI and other agencies to deploy agents to help with crowd control and protect federal buildings.
FBI leadership pushed back against Barr, but eventually relented.
“What the bureau asked those agents to do is to go out on foot patrol, something they were never trained to do. They were being asked to be police officers,” the former FBI official said. “In no way were they making a political statement.”
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