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FBI Director Kash Patel has fired a longtime bureau employee who previously displayed a Pride flag in his workspace, CNN reported, citing multiple people familiar with the matter.
The employee, who was undergoing new agent training at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, received a letter from Patel ordering his immediate dismissal. In a prior non-agent role, the individual had served as a field office diversity program coordinator and displayed a Pride flag at his workstation, sources told CNN.
While Patel’s dismissal letter did not specifically mention the Pride flag, it cited “poor judgment” and “an inappropriate display of political signage” as reasons for termination, according to the report. Two FBI veterans told CNN that displaying a Pride flag at one’s desk had not previously violated bureau policy.
“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,” the letter stated, obtained by MSNBC.
The firing comes amid President Donald Trump’s pledge to purge “woke ideology” from the federal government. It also follows Patel’s dismissal of more than a dozen FBI employees last week who had taken a knee during 2020 protests while conducting crowd control in Washington, DC.
Former FBI Director Christopher Wray had previously ruled that the 2020 kneeling incident did not violate agency policy. Patel has also dismissed or forced the resignation of several senior FBI officials since taking charge — including three who have since filed a lawsuit alleging political interference from the White House, CNN reported.
