By ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three high-ranking FBI officials were fired last month in a “campaign of retribution” carried out by a director who knew better but caved to political pressure from the Trump administration so he could keep his own position, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday that seeks reinstatement of the agents.

The complaint asserts that Director Kash Patel indicated directly to one of the ousted agents, Brian Driscoll, that he knew the firings were “likely illegal” but was powerless to stop them because the White House and the Justice Department were determined to remove all agents who helped investigate President Donald Trump. It quotes Patel as having told Driscoll in a conversation last month “the FBI tried to put the president in jail and he hasn’t forgotten it.”

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Driscoll, Steve Jensen and Spencer Evans, three of five agents known to have been fired last month in a purge that current and former officials say has unnerved the workforce. It represents a legal challenge from the top rungs of the FBI’s leadership ladder to a flood of departures under Trump’s Republican administration that has wiped out decades of experience. Fired agents have leveled unflattering allegations of a law enforcement agency whose personnel moves are shaped by the White House and guided more by politics than by public safety.

“Patel not only acted unlawfully but deliberately chose to prioritize politicizing the FBI over protecting the American people,” the suit says. It adds that “his decision to do so degraded the country’s national security by firing three of the FBI’s most experienced operational leaders, each of them experts in preventing terrorism and reducing violent crime.”

Spokespeople for the FBI had declined to comment after the agents were ousted.

FILE – Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel speak during a news conference at the Department of Justice, May 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Concerns of reputational damage

The suit was filed in federal court in Washington, where judges and grand juries have pushed back against Trump administration initiatives and charging decisions. It names as defendants Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, as well as the FBI, the Justice Department and the Executive Office of the President.

Besides reinstatement, the suit seeks, among other remedies, the awarding of back pay, an order declaring the firings illegal and even a forum for them to clear their names. It notes that Patel, in a Fox News Channel interview two weeks after the terminations, said “every single person” found to have weaponized the FBI had been removed from leadership positions even though the suit says there’s no indication any of the three had done so.

“This false and defamatory public smear impugned the professional reputation of each of the Plaintiffs, suggesting they were something other than faithful and apolitical law enforcement officials, and has caused not only the loss of the Plaintiffs’ present government employment but further harmed their future employment prospects,” the suit states.

FILE – An FBI agent walks inside the front entrance of ex-Trump national security adviser John Bolton’s Washington office, Aug 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

Unnerving requests from leadership

The three fired officials, according to the lawsuit, had participated in and supervised some of the FBI’s most complex work, including international terrorism investigations.

“They were pinnacles of what the rank-and-file aspired to, and now the FBI has been deprived not only of that example but has been deprived of very important operational competence,” said Chris Mattei, one of the agents’ lawyers. “Their firing from the FBI, taken together, has put every American at greater risk than when Brian Driscoll, Steve Jensen and Spencer Evans were in positions of leadership.”

Another of their attorneys, Abbe Lowell, said the lawsuit shows FBI leadership is “carrying out political orders to punish law enforcement agents for doing their jobs.”

Perhaps the most prominent of the plaintiffs is Driscoll, a former commander of the FBI’s specialized hostage rescue team who served as acting director between when then-Director Christopher Wray resigned in January and Patel was confirmed in February.

In that job, he had a well-publicized standoff in the first days of the Trump administration with a senior Justice Department official, Emil Bove, over Bove’s demand for a list of agents who worked on the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot by a mob of Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol. Driscoll resisted the order in a dispute that led Bove to accuse him of “insubordination.”

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Driscoll survived the dispute and took another high-profile position overseeing the FBI’s Critical Incident Response Group, or CIRG, which deploys to crises. But new problems arose last month, the complaint says, when an FBI pilot whose duties including flying the bureau’s private jet was falsely identified on social media as having been a case agent on the investigation into Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

The complaint says Driscoll was told that the pilot, Chris Meyer, could no longer fly Patel on the FBI plane. Driscoll acceded to the request but refused to strip Meyer entirely of his pilot duties and balked when told of Trump administration desires to fire him.

The lawsuit recounts a conversation from early August in which Driscoll told Patel that it would be illegal to fire someone based on case assignments. Patel, according to the suit, said he understood the actions were “likely illegal” but that he had to fire who his superiors wanted him to “because his ability to keep his own job depended on the removal of the agents who worked on cases involving the President.”

Meyer was later fired but is not among the plaintiffs in Wednesday’s suit.

One of the plaintiffs, Jensen, was picked by Patel to run the bureau’s Washington field office despite a backlash from Trump loyalists about his earlier leadership role coordinating investigations into the Capitol riot. The suit says that even as Jensen was publicly defended by FBI leadership, he was told by Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino that they were spending “a lot of political capital” to keep him in the position.

In May, according to the complaint, Bongino told him he would have to fire an agent assigned to his office who’d worked on Trump-related cases but also investigations into officials of both major political parties. That agent, Walter Giardina, was also among the five who were fired.

Another plaintiff, Evans, says he was targeted for retribution over his leadership role in the FBI’s Human Resources Division during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which made him responsible for reviewing accommodation requests from employees seeking exemption from vaccine requirements.

That position exposed Evans to a barrage of criticism from a former agent who the lawsuit says regularly aired his grievances against Evans on social media and maintained access to Patel.

Evans was among senior executives told in late January to either retire or be fired, but he was given a reprieve and permitted to remain in his job as leader of the Las Vegas field office. Despite being reassured that he had the support of Patel and Bongino, he was told in May that he would have to leave his position.

On Aug. 6, the lawsuit says, Evans was packing for a new FBI assignment in Huntsville, Alabama, when he was notified that he had been fired. The stated cause was a “lack of reasonableness and overzealousness” in implementing COVID-19 protocols, though the suit says he has no recollection of having ever denied a request for a vaccination exemption.

By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Qatari security forces and emergency fire personnel deployed Wednesday around the site of an Israeli attack the previous day on Hamas’ political leaders who had gathered in the capital of the energy-rich Middle East country to consider a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Tuesday’s strike on a building in Doha killed at least six people in a neighborhood that is home to foreign embassies and schools.

The strike on the territory of a U.S. ally drew widespread condemnation from countries in the Mideast and beyond. It also marked a dramatic escalation in the region and risked upending talks aimed at ending the war and freeing hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.

At least 10 bombs used

An Israeli official said at least 10 bombs were used in the raid. Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the attack, the official said about 10 planes participated in the mission and dropped about 10 missiles.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday he had made the decision on Monday to carry out the strike. The official did not know how long the mission had been planned, but said the timing was connected to “operational opportunity” — with Israel knowing that many Hamas officials would be gathered in an area relatively easy to hit without threatening Qatari civilians.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, called out Netanyahu over the attack.

“Such hostile behavior reflects only the barbarism of Netanyahu,” the minister said while consoling the family of a Qatari security official killed in Israel’s strike, according to the Foreign Ministry. He added that Netanyahu “was pushing the region toward irreparable instability, undermining international laws and frameworks.”

Sheikh Mohammed also “criticized Netanyahu for previously declaring intentions to reshape the Middle East, questioning whether this was also meant as a threat to reshape the Arabian Gulf,” the statement said.

At the scene of the attack

From a distance beyond the security cordon, the buildings that had housed the Hamas leadership in Doha could be seen still standing. But one room in particular appeared to have been the target of the strike — its walls had collapsed, and gray rubble could be seen inside.

Satellite photos from Planet Labs PBC showed damage to structures to the south of the Hamas compound as well, though the buildings were still standing.

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Security forces and emergency personnel surrounded the site and blocked traffic.

A gas station to one side did not appear to have suffered any fire damage. The windows of the building next to the one targeted remained intact.

Israel hasn’t specified what it used to carry out the strike, beyond saying it employed precision-guided weapons meant to minimize collateral damage.

Hamas said in a statement Tuesday that its top leaders survived the strike but that five lower-level members were killed, including the son of Khalil al-Hayya — Hamas’ leader for Gaza and its top negotiator — as well as three bodyguards and the head of al-Hayya’s office. Hamas, which has sometimes only confirmed the assassination of its leaders months later, offered no immediate proof that al-Hayya and other senior figures had survived.

Hitting an American ally

Qatar maintains a major arsenal of air defense systems, including both American-made Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD batteries. However, it didn’t immediately appear that Qatari air defenses engaged during the attack, which occurred just before 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Sheikh Mohammed said Tuesday that “the Israeli enemy used weapons that were not detected by radar.”

He did not elaborate but the statement suggests Israeli fighter jets could have launched so-called “standoff” missiles at a distance to strike the site without actually entering Qatari airspace.

The United States has said it warned Qatar before the strike. Qatar disputes that, with Sheikh Mohammed saying that “the Americans sent a message 10 minutes after the attacks took place, saying they were informed that there was going to be a missile attack on the state of Qatar.”

Qatar is also home to the U.S. military’s forward headquarters for its Mideast-based Central Command. The headquarters, located at the sprawling Al-Udeid Air Base, also has American-run radars and defense systems and recently hosted U.S. President Donald Trump on his tour of the region in May.

Qatar’s advisory Shura Council condemned what it described as a “criminal, treacherous and cowardly attack” which it said “represents a flagrant and ongoing breach of all international laws and norms.”

Stalled Gaza talks

Israel’s attack in Qatar threatens to upend both negotiations over a ceasefire in Gaza and Israel’s efforts to reach out to Gulf Arab states, New York-based think tank The Soufan Center said in an analysis Wednesday.

“The attack has profound strategic implications because by striking a Gulf Cooperation Council state, Israel risks undermining the Abraham Accords and unraveling the fragile normalization framework with Arab partners,” the center said, referring to the 2020 diplomatic recognition deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

“Israel’s strike on Qatar raises the uncomfortable question: if a state like Qatar, with its carefully cultivated neutrality and commitment to peacemaking, is punished for its role, who will dare step into the vacuum of mediation in the future?” the center asked.

The leader of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is also the ruler of Abu Dhabi, traveled Wednesday to Qatar in a visit that likely underscores the growing unease the Emirates feels with Israel.

In recent days, the UAE warned Israel that any effort to annex the West Bank, part of land the Palestinians want for their future state, would be a “red line” that would threaten the Abraham Accords.

Qatar’s ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, welcomed Sheikh Mohammed. The two leaders had been on opposite sides of a political dispute for years during the first Trump administration that saw the UAE and three other nations boycott Doha.

The crown princes of Kuwait and Jordan also traveled to Qatar on Wednesday.

The state-run Qatar News Agency said Sheikh Tamim held a series of calls with world leaders, including Trump.

Sheikh Tamim condemned the attack and according to a readout of the call, said that Qatar holds Israel “responsible for its repercussions, in light of the policy of aggression they adopt that threatens the region’s stability and obstructs efforts to de-escalate and reach sustainable diplomatic solutions.”

Associated Press writers Josef Federman and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Elena Becatoros in Athens contributed to this report.

By JOHN LEICESTER, JEFFREY SCHAEFFER and SAMUEL PETREQUIN

PARIS (AP) — Protesters blocked roads, lit blazes and were met with volleys of tear gas on Wednesday in Paris and elsewhere in France, heaping pressure on President Emmanuel Macron and making new Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu ‘s first day in office a baptism of fire.

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The government announced hundreds of arrests, as demonstrations against Macron, budget cuts and other complaints spread to big cities and small towns.

Although falling short of its self-declared intention to “Block Everything,” the protest movement that started online over the summer caused widespread hot spots of disruption, defying an exceptional deployment of 80,000 police who broke up barricades and swiftly took people into custody.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said that a bus was set on fire in the western city of Rennes. In the southwest, fire damage to electrical cables stopped train services on one line and disrupted traffic on another, government transport authorities said.

Spreading protests

The “Bloquons Tout,” or “Block Everything,” protests, while mobilizing tens of thousands of people, nevertheless appeared less intense than previous bouts of unrest that have sporadically rocked Macron in both his first and ongoing second term as president. They included months of nationwide so-called yellow vest demonstrations against economic injustice in 2018-2019.

After his reelection in 2022, Macron also faced firestorms of anger over unpopular pension reforms and nationwide unrest and rioting in 2023 after the deadly police shooting of a teenager on Paris’ outskirts.

Still, demonstrations and sporadic clashes with riot police in Paris and elsewhere Wednesday added to a sense of crisis that has again gripped France following its latest government collapse on Monday, when Prime Minister François Bayrou lost a parliamentary confidence vote.

The protests immediately presented a challenge to Bayrou’s replacement, Lecornu, installed Wednesday.

‘Another from the right’

Groups of protesters who repeatedly tried to block Paris’ beltway during the morning rush hour were dispersed by police using tear gas. Elsewhere in the capital, protesters piled up trash cans and hurled objects at police officers. Firefighters were called out to a fire in a restaurant in the downtown Châtelet neighborhood, where thousands of protesters gathered peacefully.

In Paris, the number of arrests topped 200, police said. The Interior Ministry reported nearly 300 people taken into custody nationwide, Paris included.

Road blockades, traffic slowdowns and other protests were widely spread — from the southern port city of Marseille to Lille and Caen in the north, and Nantes and Rennes in the west to Grenoble and Lyon in the southeast. Authorities reported demonstrations in small towns, too.

Afternoon gatherings of thousands of people in central Paris were peaceful and good humored, with placards taking aim at Macron and his new prime minister.

“Lecornu, you’re not welcome,” read a placard brandished by a group of graphic design students. Another read: “Macron explosion.”

“One prime minister has just been ousted and straight away we get another from the right,” said student Baptiste Sagot, 21. “They’re trying to make working people, young students, retirees — all people in difficulty — bear all the effort instead of taxing wealth.”

A weary nation

France’s prolonged cycle of political instability, with Macron’s minority governments lurching from crisis to crisis, has fueled widespread discontent.

Paris protester Aglawen Vega, a nurse and public hospital union delegate, said anger that fueled the yellow-vest protests never went away and that she wanted to defend France’s public services from privatization.

“We’re governed by robbers,” she said. “People are suffering, are finding it harder and harder to last out the month, to feed themselves. We’re becoming an impoverished nation.”

Some criticized the disruptions.

“It’s a bit excessive,” said Bertrand Rivard, an accounting worker on his way to a meeting in Paris. “We live in a democracy and the people should not block the country because the government doesn’t take the right decisions.”

“Block Everything” gathered momentum over the summer on social media and encrypted chats, including on Telegram. Pavel Durov, its Russian-born founder now under investigation in France for alleged criminal activity on the messaging app., said he is “proud” the platform was used to organise anti-Macron rallies.

The movement’s call for a day of blockades, strikes, boycotts, demonstrations and other acts of protest came as Bayrou was preparing plans to massively slash public spending — by 44 billion euros ($51 billion) — to rein in France’s growing deficit and trillions in debts. He also proposed the elimination of two public holidays from the country’s annual calendar — which proved wildly unpopular.

Lecornu, who previously served as defense minister, now inherits the task of addressing France’s budget difficulties, facing the same political instability and widespread hostility to Macron that contributed to Bayrou’s undoing.

Macron’s governments have been on particularly shaky ground since he dissolved the National Assembly last year, triggering an unscheduled legislative election that stacked the lower house of parliament with opponents of the French president.

Spontaneous movement

“Block Everything” grew virally online with no clear identified leadership and a broad array of complaints — many targeting budget cuts, broader inequality and Macron himself.

Retailleau, a conservative who allied with Macron’s centrist camp to serve as interior minister in Bayrou’s government and is now in a caretaker role until Lecornu puts his Cabinet together, alleged Wednesday that left-wing radicals hijacked the protest movement, even though it has an apparent broad range of supporters. Appeals for non-violence accompanied its online protest calls.

Retailleau alleged that elected politicians who have backed the movement are attempting “to create a climate of insurrection in France” and he said some protesters appeared hell-bent on fighting with police.

“We have, in fact, small groups that are seasoned, mobile, often wearing masks and hoods, dressed in black, which in reality are the recognized signs, the DNA, of … extreme-left and ultra-left movements,” Retailleau said.

The spontaneity of “Block Everything” is reminiscent of the yellow vests. That movement started with workers camping out at traffic circles to protest a hike in fuel taxes, sporting high-visibility vests. It quickly spread to people across political, regional, social and generational divides angry at economic injustice and Macron’s leadership.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, maker of weight-loss drug Wegovy, said Wednesday it would cut 9,000 jobs, 5,000 of them in Denmark, in order to strengthen the company’s focus on growth opportunities in obesity and diabetes medications.

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The restructuring, which would eliminate 11% of the company’s workforce, aimed to reduce organizational complexity and speed up decision-making as the company faces a more competitive market for obesity drugs.

The streamlining would save 8 billion Danish krone ($1.25 billion) by the end of 2026, savings that are to be redirected to diabetes and obesity, including research and development, the company said. Novo Nordisk also makes Ozempic, a diabetes drug that also can result in weight loss.

The company said implementation of the job cuts would begin immediately and that it would let the affected employees know over the next few months depending on local labor rules. The company, which is based in Bagsvaerd just outside Copenhagen, has 78,400 workers.

“Our markets are evolving, particularly in obesity, as it has become more competitive and consumer-driven,” said President and CEO Mike Doustdar. “Our company must evolve as well. This means instilling an increased performance-based culture, deploying our resources ever more effectively, and prioritizing investment where it will have the most impact — behind our leading therapy areas.”

Doustdar became CEO in May after his predecessor, Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen, left the company after the share price fell and as the company faced competition from weight-loss drugs from competitor Eli Lilly. Shares had skyrocketed after the introduction of Wegovy and Ozempic, which are both based on the same basic ingredient, semaglutide.

At the peak, the company’s market capitalization — or the combined price of all its shares — exceeded Denmark’s annual gross domestic product and made it Europe’s most valuable company.