Headline Roundup • September 29th, 2025
FBI Agents Reportedly Fired for Kneeling During George Floyd Protests
Summary from the AllSides News Team
The FBI has reportedly dismissed between 15 and 20 agents who were photographed kneeling with protestors during the height of the George Floyd protests in 2020.
The Details: The firings come amid a broader personnel purge at the FBI under the leadership of Trump-appointed Director Kash Patel. The FBI Agents Association condemned the dismissals, stating that they "violate the due process rights" of the agents and reflect a "dangerous new pattern of actions" that weaken the bureau. The incident was reviewed by top FBI officials at the time, who determined they had not violated policy, but the case was reopened this year under Patel.
For Context: The agents were deployed to de-escalate protests in Washington, D.C., following the killing of George Floyd. The act of kneeling was widely used by protestors and supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement. The agents involved in the incident claimed their act was not political, but rather an attempt inspired by similar National Guard tactics to reduce tensions between themselves and the crowd, according to CNN (Lean Left bias). Fox News (Right) reported similar quotes, citing an agent who said, “This wasn’t politics—it was survival.”
How the Media Covered It: CNN focused on the agents’ explanations for why they chose to kneel, calling the firings part of a “broader effort” to “root out what Trump has called ‘woke.’” Fox News included the agents’ explanations for their choices and quoted critics saying the firings “reflect a purge” under Patel. BBC (Center bias) named several other top officials who have recently been let go from the bureau.
Revised by the AllSides staff (of humans) after a first draft from our custom AI. Learn more. Support our mission. Suggest an improvement to this summary.
Featured Coverage of this Story
The FBI has fired nearly two dozen agents who were photographed kneeling amid the George Floyd protests in 2020, according to reports.
An estimated 20 agents have been dismissed, according to The Associated Press, which reported that many of those terminated had already been reassigned to lower-profile duties in the years since.
Reuters framed the number of fired agents as "more than a dozen."
The FBI has fired 15 agents associated with a 2020 incident in which agents were photographed kneeling with demonstrators at the height of protests over the police killing of George Floyd, according to the agents association. The latest round of dismissa
The FBI has fired 15 agents associated with a 2020 incident in which agents were photographed kneeling with demonstrators at the height of protests over the police killing of George Floyd, according to the agents association.
The latest round of dismissals at the bureau came at the end of a monthslong review targeting 15 agents who were associated with the kneeling incident, according to one person briefed on the matter. Some agents who were present at the incident but didn’t kneel were not fired, the source said.
The FBI Agents...
Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu via Getty Images
The FBI has fired a group of agents who were pictured kneeling at a racial justice protest over the death of George Floyd, US media report.
The termination letter cited alleged "lack of judgement" in their actions, according to a source cited by CBS News, the BBC's US partner. Between 15 to 20 agents have reportedly been sacked.
The agents reportedly took the knee alongside others during a demonstration in 2020. Floyd, a black man, had been killed by a police officer who knelt on his neck in May that...
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