The FBI employee was fired on the first day of the government shutdown as Trump threatened more terminations.
FBI Director Kash Patel on Wednesday fired an agent in training for displaying a gay pride flag on his desk while appointed to a field office in California last year, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The trainee, who previously worked as an FBI support specialist in Los Angeles, received a letter — dated Oct. 1 and signed by Patel — claiming he had displayed an improper “political” message in the workplace during his assignment in California under President Joe Biden, according to a copy of the letter shared with MSNBC.
The letter cited President Donald Trump’s Article II powers under the Constitution to dismiss federal agency career personnel, a justification used in several recent firings at the Department of Justice and FBI. The terminations are currently being challenged in several lawsuits.
it’s political to acknowledge that ppl different than you exist to republicans
Imagine being fired by a deer forever caught in headlights.
His physical appearance is not his fault or the thing that I disagree with. Its the evil decisions that irk me.
Like we had a department of defense that protected us from outside threats. But we renamed it department of war and pointed it at ourselves. WTF! How does that make any sense at all?
They didn’t even rename it, it’s still the Department of Defesne… they couldn’t get the votes to actually change it. Department of War is a “cool nickname” Hegseth gave the department, it’s officially a “secondary name”. Sort of like their preferred pronoun. Don’t deadname them, I’m sure they’d hate to keep getting called Department of Defense.
Like we had a department of defense that protected us from outside threats
It’s always been a department of war.
Fascists are the weakest form of snowflake.
Wrongful termination, much, Mr. Patel?
Soooo much winning everywhere!
So when does Kash’s skin tone become an inappropriate political display?
You won’t need to wait too long. After t dies there will be a power grab, that’s when everyone who isn’t a “straight” white Christian will be removed from all government positions.
“christian” every single one of these domestic terrorists espouses the COMPLETE opposite of Jesus’s teachings.
As has been established, it truly IS the hardest part.
Kash Patel felt threatened because the FBI trainee was more qualified to run things.
The letter cited President Donald Trump’s Article II powers under the Constitution to dismiss federal agency career personnel, a justification used in several recent firings at the Department of Justice and FBI.
Governing by presidential decree is as close as you can get to absolute monarchy - or, let’s called it as it is, fascist tyranny - in this country. And they already started dismantling the last remaining obstacles. As he himself said “if you vote for me you’ll never have to vote again”.
The terminations are currently being challenged in several lawsuits.
Good.
This shit is horrible, but it gets worse. People are dying from this regime.
Don’t know that laws matter anymore but firing someone based on sexual orientation is illegal.
You don’t need to be gay to fly a rainbow flag
Laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation also cover perceived orientation.
Sure, but the justification used for firing was the display of the flag (speech), not perceived orientation. That may have been their real reason, but even their cover story was illegal
It was also during Biden’s presidency, when there weren’t any prohibitions on that. So there could be an argument that the stated reason was not the real reason. Not sure how well it would hold, but it is a thing
This is more of a first amendment violation
Why not both.
Since when has that stopped to the Trump administration from doing anything?
True. Okay SCROTUS, time to lick boots again.
Another lawsuit would be appropriate.
Hey! Hey guys, hear me out. We should have a Catholic priest run something. Like maybe National air traffic control.
Every day a pilot, after the routine checks must then have do the cross signing thing before they start up the engine. Three hail Mary’s before the plane moves.
Stuff like that just makes my day happier. Having to watch an adult do dumb things because it pleases an invisible flying man who we cannot communicate with, it just makes my day.
Let’s have more goat sacrifices and describe the stars as souls so the space station stays up there.
They were going to do it anyway, this is not the fault of the shit down
No shit, they got a letter in the mail dated 10/1.
It was ready and waiting.
Likely because he got an award in 2022 for something trump didn’t like.
Snowflakes and piss babies all of them
While I think this government is loaded with pedophile scum and they should all be shot out of a canon into the sun, I don’t think this is a first amendment rights violation.
If the person in question had been fired for hanging a pride flag in his apartment window, that would be a violation of his first amendment rights. However putting it on his desk in a federal office building is different.
The federal government shouldn’t be seen as endorsing any particular view. Unfortunately, if some homophobic dickhead needs to talk to an agent, they shouldn’t be concerned about whether the agent will treat them differently.
The scum running the FBI likely wouldn’t care if someone was displaying a Nazi flag on their desk, but they’d probably be forced to respond.
Or maybe not.
Acknowledging people exist isn’t political. Regressives act like it is, but it isn’t.
A pride flag on a desk is like having pictures of your kids on your desk.
A pride flag on your desk, during the Biden administration, ages ago, apparently is, for Mr. Patel.
Acknowledging people exist isn’t political.
It would be much a nicer world to live in if that was true.
EVERYTHING is political, and we live in a world where fascists make existence a political issue.
The comparison to a Nazi flag is absurd. A better comparison would be if an agent had a straight price flag on their desk. And no, the agent would not have lost their job under this regime for such a display.
I wasn’t really intending to suggest it was equivalent. I was just thinking of something we could almost universally agree shouldn’t be permitted… but probably would be by the current administration.
In effect, I was reaching for the absurd. If it was a free speech issue, then a Nazi flag would be just as protected.
