Kash Patel Axes FBI Former ‘Diversity Coordinator’ for ‘Inappropriate Display’ of Gay Pride Flag

An FBI trainee who displayed a gay pride flag on his desk while working in a prior non-agent role as a support staffer and “diversity coordinator” at the bureau’s Los Angeles field office was fired this week for what the FBI director, Kash Patel, said was an “inappropriate display of political signage.”The trainee, who was not identified by name, was until his dismissal enrolled in the FBI’s new agent training program at Quantico, Virginia. In an October 1 letter, Mr. Patel informed the trainee that he was being summarily dismissed from his role and removed from federal service “under my authority as the FBI Director, effective immediately,” and pursuant to President Trump’s executive powers under Article II of the U.S. Constitution.“I have determined you exercised poor judgment with an inappropriate display of political signage in your work area during your previous assignment at the Los Angeles Field Office,” Mr. Patel said in his letter.A redacted version of the termination letter received by the FBI trainee. New York SunWhile Mr. Patel did not specifically identify the signage, CNN reported that the trainee had displayed a gay pride flag at his “workstation” at the Los Angeles field office, where he had also served as a diversity program coordinator during the Biden administration. In 2022, Mr. Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, honored the trainee during the 69th Annual Attorney General’s Awards, according to reports.An FBI spokesman did not respond to questions from the Sun.The trainee’s firing marks the latest in a string of dismissals under Mr. Patel and his co-deputy director, Dan Bongino, as they seek to make cultural changes at the bureau. Last week, the FBI leaders fired more than a dozen agents who were photographed kneeling during a Washington-area Black Lives Matter protest in 2020. Several other supervisory special agents, all female, had already been reassigned in April due to the photo. The agents defended their decision to kneel as a gesture to diffuse tensions between protesters and law enforcement. Mr. Trump has repeatedly denounced the protesters as violent rioters. Since taking office, Mr. Trump has moved to quickly phase out programs across the federal government that promote “diversity, equity and inclusion” — which the administration has declared illegal — and “woke” causes.In January, the Trump administration shuttered the Department of Justice’s internal LGBTQ resource group, DOJ Pride, saying in an internal message it was doing so “in the interest and for the protection of all members.” An agency employee paints over a wall mural extolling diversity in late January of this year, shortly after President Trump’s return to power. XMr. Trump also established a list of hundreds of words and terms to avoid, which the administration considers divisive, including “advocacy,” “BIPOC,” “LGBTQ,” and “social justice.” References to “transgender” have been removed from federal literature and nomenclature, in line with the administration’s declaration that there are only two genders.Also in January, the FBI’s new management had an employee paint over a wall at the agency’s legendary Quantico facility displaying the FBI’s “core values” in which the word “diversity” was front and center. The justice department — which oversees the FBI — has also been pursuing a formal effort to end what it calls the “weaponization” of the federal government against conservatives, Christians, and the MAGA movement. In August, Messrs. Patel and Bongino dismissed several high-ranking FBI officials who’d been involved in separate investigations of Mr. Trump, his senior aides, and his supporters. This included a former acting FBI director, Brian Driscoll, who pushed back against the Trump administration’s efforts to identify agents who worked on the January 6 investigation. Mr. Driscoll and two other dismissed officials — a former assistant director in charge, Steve Jensen, and a special agent in charge, Spencer Evans — filed a joint lawsuit against Attorney General Pam Bondi and Messrs. Patel and Bongino, accusing them of unconstitutionally firing them.“Patel explained that 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,” said the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court at Washington.An estimated 800 FBI employees, including a significant number of special agents, left the bureau’s payroll at midnight Tuesday, the result of the “fork in the road” buyout deals offered by the Department of Governmental Efficiency earlier this year.

Kash Patel Axes FBI Former ‘Diversity Coordinator’ for ‘Inappropriate Display’ of Gay Pride Flag

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