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.

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[+] 110 points 1 year ago (4 children)
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    [–] 40 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    They were going to do it anyway, this is not the fault of the shit down

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  • [–] 33 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    So when does Kash's skin tone become an inappropriate political display?

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  • [+] 15 points 1 year ago (3 children)
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    [–] 18 points 1 year ago

    Kash Patel felt threatened because the FBI trainee was more qualified to run things.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago

    Wrongful termination, much, Mr. Patel?

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago

    Fascists are the weakest form of snowflake.

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  • [–] 19 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    Imagine being fired by a deer forever caught in headlights.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    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?

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  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Honestly, I don't disagree with that renaming. The Department of War is what it used to be called, and Department of Defence was just whitewashing. It's always been about war, not defence. The US hasn't fought a defensive war since the War of 1812 —or debatably The Civil War, but that was a civil war, not a defensive war. This is before the name was changed even, so it made even less sense when it was renamed.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    Soooo much winning everywhere!

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    if you are queer in the states and you think it is a good idea to work for the slave catchers, uh, it isn't

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago

    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.

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  • [+] -12 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    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.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    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.

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