FBI director Kash Patel
FBI director Kash Patel on Wednesday fired an agent trainee after he displayed a gay pride flag on his desk.The trainee was fired while working in a California field office last year, according to a dismissal notice, MSNBC reported.The trainee had earlier served as an FBI support specialist in Los Angeles. He received a formal letter on October 1 signed by Patel. The letter said that he had shown an improper “political” message in the workplace during his assignment in Los Angeles under the then US President Joe Biden.“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 said in a statement, according to MSNBC.The dismissal notice also cited US President Donald Trump’s Article II powers under the Constitution as justification. The letter added, “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.” It was issued on the same day the US government entered a nationwide shutdown on Wednesday.The trainee did not immediately comment on the dismissal. The firing has worried some agents in the FBI’s Washington office, leading them to check their desks and social media for anything that might be seen as anti-Trump or against his appointees.The firing comes days after Patel dismissed more than a dozen FBI employees who had taken a knee during crowd control in 2020 in Washington, DC in line with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests. Trump has vowed to remove what he calls “woke” ideology from the federal government.In recent months, Trump and Russell Vought, director of the office of management and budget, warned of widespread firings in the federal workforce if a government shutdown occurred.Concerns about LGBTQ representation have also grown inside federal agencies in the MAGA rule. DOJ Pride, an employee group supporting LGBTQ staff at the Department of Justice, ceased operations in January after Trump signed an executive order eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes.
