MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
A new lawsuit by three fired FBI agents accuses the agency's leaders of carrying out a campaign of retribution. The court papers allege the senior agents were dismissed for not being loyal to President Trump. NPR's Carrie Johnson is covering the case, and she's with us now. Good morning, Carrie.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: So can you tell us who these former FBI agents are?
JOHNSON: Altogether, they put in 60 years of public service. Brian Driscoll's one of them. He led hostage rescues. He's won awards for bravery. This year, he briefly served as acting FBI director, only to be fired by the new director last month. Another fired agent is Steve Jensen. He ran the Washington Field Office. That's one of the biggest jobs in the FBI. He also coordinated the FBI response to the Capitol riot four years ago. And then finally, there's Spencer Evans, who led the Las Vegas Field Office. All three of these men were fired before they could collect their retirement benefits, they say, without due process and in violation of the law.
MARTIN: Carrie, you have told us it's really unusual for national security professionals to sue their bosses. So why did these three go to court?
JOHNSON: Well, these three fired agents are not talking on tape right now. But in written statements, they say they have devoted their entire careers to following the law, and in their view, that's not happening right now at the FBI. The court case alleges intense pressure from the White House to carry out mass firings, both at the FBI and the Justice Department, basically to get rid of people who once investigated Donald Trump. And a couple of these former senior agents were actually promoted after the inauguration, only to get fired weeks later. The court papers say the new FBI director, Kash Patel, knew some of these firings were not legal, but he was afraid of losing his own job. Abbe Lowell's a lawyer for these three senior FBI officials who were fired. Here's how he described the situation.
ABBE LOWELL: One of our clients gets praised on Monday and fired on Tuesday. That's why somebody is told, even by the director, that you're crushing it, and then the next day or the next week is told you didn't carry out what the president wanted you to carry out. You're fired.
JOHNSON: Lowell says it's hard to understand these firings at a time when the White House is focused on preventing and policing crime.
MARTIN: Has the Trump administration responded?
JOHNSON: Well, the FBI declined comment. They often do not talk about personnel actions. And the Justice Department didn't respond. They often refuse to discuss pending litigation like this case. But a White House spokeswoman told me Kash Patel leads the FBI, and as director, he oversees and manages all aspects of the agency - kind of distancing themselves.
MARTIN: So, you know, we've seen and heard a lot about this disruption in the federal government since this - the second Trump administration took over. Is there something about this FBI lawsuit that stands out?
JOHNSON: Yeah. For one thing, the FBI has a lot of power to investigate people, and people who work there say there's been a bright red line between law enforcement and partisan political activity. They say they want to make sure the current leaders at the bureau use their power wisely without political influence. And for another, Michel, these fired agents made some allegations about inexperience and petty behavior by senior officials. Driscoll, who served briefly as the acting director, says a senior DOJ official complained to him after agents created a video basically depicting Driscoll as Batman and the DOJ officer as the movie villain Bane. Now, FBI director Patel is due before the Senate Judiciary Committee next week. He's likely to get questions about this lawsuit then.
MARTIN: That's NPR's Carrie Johnson. Carrie, thank you.
JOHNSON: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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