Former federal employee sues government after allegedly being fired for Facebook comments about Kirk's assassination
Source: NBC News
Nov. 14, 2025, 10:05 PM EST / Updated Nov. 15, 2025, 10:20 AM EST
A former federal contract worker for the U.S. Coast Guard and Team USA athlete is suing the government after he says he was fired for making comments on Facebook about Charlie Kirk's assassination.
Peter Souders, an engineer and project manager for government contractor Advanced Concepts Enterprises Inc. (ACES), alleges that he was fired "in retaliation for his private speech on a matter of significant national interest and attention," violating his First Amendment rights, the lawsuit states. The 35-year-old had been working at the Coast Guard's headquarters since July. Souders was also a member of the USA fencing team up until 2016.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday and names the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense, as well as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as the defendants. The deputy assistant secretary of defense for civilian personnel policy, Michael Cogar, and the chief of staff to the undersecretary for management at the DHS, Greyson McGill, were also named as defendants.
According to the lawsuit, Cogar emailed McGill about alleged "inappropriate behavior" from a Coast Guard contractor on Sept. 17. McGill then contacted the office of the chief security officer about "a social media post linked to Peter Souders," asking it to confirm if he was a DHS contractor.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-federal-employee-sues-government-charlie-kirk-comments-rcna243956
SunSeeker
(57,327 posts)FBaggins
(28,594 posts)It isn't "a matter of significant national interest and attention" to debate whether or not it's ok to assassinate someone. Anyone is unlikely to keep a 3-month-old job at a private company for the kinds of things that he said.
And that's assuming we take his version of the story as accurate (i.e., that the government had him fired). It's just as plausible that his employer fired him as soon as they were aware of the post entirely on their own accord.
And it's a Biden administration policy clarifying inappropriate behavior online (stemming from the Jan 6 riots) that will likely kill the suit if it actually even gets anywhere.
To be clear - it's ok to debate whether or not the guy had any laudable qualities at all. You can disagree all day long with his positions.
SunSeeker
(57,327 posts)He appears to have copies of those emails, since he was able to quote from them. From the article:
According to the lawsuit, Cogar emailed McGill about alleged inappropriate behavior from a Coast Guard contractor on Sept. 17. McGill then contacted the office of the chief security officer about a social media post linked to Peter Souders, asking it to confirm if he was a DHS contractor.
After receiving confirmation, McGill allegedly ordered DHS and Coast Guard personnel to execute all necessary offboarding and access termination actions without delay, the lawsuit states.
As for the substance of his comments, not one of them said it was "ok to assassinate someone." The posts stated his opinion on Kirks positions, and the hypocrisy of those who claim to be "pro-punching Nazis":
FBaggins
(28,594 posts)Last edited Sun Nov 16, 2025, 06:48 PM - Edit history (1)
His employer chose to fire him because of that (they could have kept him on a different contract if they wanted him). It isn't at all uncommon for an employer to fire a 3-month employee because his social media posts damaged the company's relationship with their largest customers. But as I said - the feds could have fired him for those comments even if he worked for them directly. It's well within the "extremism" standard that President Biden instituted after 1/6.
As for the substance of his comments, not one of them said it was "ok to assassinate someone." The posts stated his opinion on Kirks positions, and the hypocrisy of those who claim to be "pro-punching Nazis":
The full quote was "You cant be pro-punching Nazis and then pretend its a bad thing when someone actually does"
This "nazi" wasn't "punched". He's clearly saying that he thinks you can't pretend to be anti-facist if you think Kirk's assasination was a bad thing. That's well outside the bounds of protected speech. It could be if he had been arrested and imprisoned for it... but his employer is not obligated to keep him.
SunSeeker
(57,327 posts)Whether that was the sole reason he was fired or not, contacting his employer and making thise demands alone is a straight up infringement of his First Amendment rights, as it is retaliation for political speech.
And you're putting words in the man's mouth. You do not know what he "clearly thinks." He never mentioned assassination, nor did he say "you can't pretend to be anti-facist if you think Kirk's assasination was a bad thing." He said, "You cant be pro-punching Nazis and then pretend its a bad thing when someone actually does." He didn't even say that punching Nazis in the face was a good thing, he just brought up the hypocrisy of those who do say it.
wolfie001
(6,585 posts)Hope that's an acceptable moniker to describe them. They sure melted like snowflakes when people posted Charlie "Triple KKK" Kirk's own words.
Crowman2009
(3,360 posts)Every criticism of this racist POS is justified.