Three former senior FBI leaders have filed a lawsuit against FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, alleging they were dismissed under orders from the White House and the Justice Department.

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, alleges that Patel carried out the firings to protect his own position, telling one of the agents that his job as FBI director depended on firing agents involved in past investigations of President Trump. NPR and MSNBC were the first outlets to report the lawsuit.

Patel allegedly said “he had to fire the people his superiors told him to fire, because his ability to keep his own job depended on the removal of the agents who worked on cases involving the President .. Patel explained that there was nothing [anyone] could do to stop these or any other firings, because ‘the FBI tried to put the President in jail and he hasn’t forgotten it.’”

The three fired agents who brought the case were decorated veterans of the agency who had served in senior roles. One of the agents, Brian Driscoll, had briefly been acting FBI director while Patel was going through the Senate confirmation process. Steven Jensen served as assistant director in charge of the Washington, D.C., field office. Spencer Evans had once led the Las Vegas field office, but by the time he was fired he had been removed from that position and was being relocated to the Huntsville, Alabama, office. According to the complaint, Driscoll indicated he believed Patel was referring to his superiors at the White House and the Justice Department which “Patel did not deny.” In the lawsuit, Driscoll, Jensen, and Evans ask a federal court to rule that their dismissals are legally invalid. They are also seeking a formal “name-clearing” hearing and reinstatement to their positions.

The filing comes after a report stated that Driscoll was removed from his role shortly after resisting a Justice Department order. At the time, DOJ sought a list of all FBI agents who had participated in investigations connected to the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. Driscoll wrote in a memo to FBI staff that “this request covers thousands of employees nationwide who contributed to those cases. I count myself among them.”

The FBI  and the Justice Department have not yet responded to requests for a comment.

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