Fbi Reassigns Agents Photographed Kneeling During 2020 Racial Justice Protest, Ap Sources Say

The FBI has reassigned several agents who were photographed kneeling during a racial justice protest in Washington that followed the 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers , two people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

The reasons for the moves were not immediately clear, though they come as the FBI under Director Kash Patel has been undertaking broad personnel changes and as Deputy Director Dan Bongino has repeatedly sought to reassure supporters of President Donald Trump who are critical of the bureau that their complaints are being taken seriously.

"The Director and I are working on a number of significant initiatives to ensure that the mistakes of the past are never repeated, and that many of your open questions are answered," Bongino wrote in one recent post on X, formerly known as Twitter. He did not specify what mistakes or questions he was referring to.

The reassignments, first reported by CNN, were confirmed to The Associated Press by two people familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss non-public personnel moves. An FBI spokesman declined to comment.

The photographs at issue showed a group of agents taking a knee during one of the demonstrations following the May 2020 killing of Floyd, a death that sparked widespread anger after millions of people saw video of his arrest and led to a national reckoning over policing and racial injustice.