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.

The kneeling angered some in the FBI but was also understood as a possible de-escalation tactic during a period of widespread protests, and the agents were not punished at the time.

Patel pledged at his January confirmation hearing that he would not “go backwards” in seeking retribution against perceived adversaries of the Trump administration. But even before he was sworn in, there was concern that the Justice Department was poised to do exactly that, including by demanding a list of the thousands of agents who worked on investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, a request seen by some as a possible precursor to a purge at the bureau.

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.

https://apnews.com/article/fbi-george-floyd-kash-patel-c59a8d2e055dadea1adf5187f7ee3620