FBI Director Kash Patel fired an agent in training, who displayed a gay pride flag on his desk last year, according to reports.
The incident in question occurred when the trainee, who has not been publicly identified, was on an assignment in California some time under President Joe Biden, sources told MSNBC News. The Independent has reached out to the FBI for comment.
A signed letter from Patel, dated October 1, alleged that the trainee had displayed an improper “political” message in the workplace during this previous assignment, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the outlet.
“After reviewing the facts and circumstances and considering your probationary status, I have determined that you exercised poor judgment with an inappropriate display of political signage in your work area during your previous assignment in the Los Angeles Field Office,” Patel wrote.
The employee was undergoing training at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia when he was “summarily dismissed,” the letter shows.
“You are being summarily dismissed from your position as a New Agent Trainee at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and removed from the federal service,” the letter stated.
The letter also cited Article II of the Constitution, which lays out the president’s powers. The Trump has administration used this justification in other recent firings, which has sparked several lawsuits.
The bureau employee previously worked as a diversity program coordinator and received multiple awards for service, according to CNN.
The trainee’s notice of dismissal occurred the same day the government shut down. On Thursday, President Donald Trump threatened mass layoffs, suggesting he would be using the shutdown as an opportunity to shake up the federal workforce.
The president said he planned to meet with Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, “to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent. I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has also made curbing diversity, equity, and inclusion programs a priority — including in the Justice Department.
Days after the president signed an order seeking to end “radical and wasteful” DEI programs in January, DOJ Pride, an LGBTQ employee resource group at the department, shut down, NBC News reported at the time.
The group “ceased to operate effective immediately,” the group’s board said in an email. “In this time of uncertainty and concern, we have taken the extraordinary measure of ceasing operations of DOJ Pride,” the email read.
We have made this decision in the interest and for the protection of all members.”
