A group of former FBI agents filed a lawsuit on Monday claiming they were unlawfully fired for kneeling during a 2020 racial justice protest in the US capital.

The 12 agents were fired earlier this year by FBI Director Kash Patel, who has been accused by Democrats of purging the bureau's ranks of agents perceived as being disloyal to President Donald Trump.

The lawsuit filed by the agents -- nine women and three men -- in a federal court in Washington seeks their reinstatement and names Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi as defendants.

In their complaint, the agents, who filed the suit anonymously, recounted the circumstances in the capital on the day they took a knee.

It was June 4, 2020, less than two weeks after the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a Black man whose murder by

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