Fired FBI agents sue Trump admin/Image: AP
Their lawyers, Margaret Donovan, Abbe Lowell and Rebecca Tinio, said the dismissals punished employees for performing their duties without political bias. “In return for their service, they were fired because they did their jobs, as they always did to follow the facts and law without bias or favor,” the lawyers said in a statement. Nine former FBI employees have sued the Trump administration, seeking reinstatement after being dismissed over their involvement in the investigation into Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents at his Florida estate. They allege their removal was politically motivated and violated their legal rights. Their case adds to a series of legal challenges brought by former FBI employees dismissed under Director Kash Patel after working on investigations involving Trump or matters viewed as contrary to his administration’s interests. “To this administration, this is an offense. To the rest of us, it is heroic,” as cited by AP.
The complaint also cites events shortly after Trump returned to office in January 2025, when a senior Justice Department official sought a list of FBI employees who had worked on investigations involving the president.
It points to Patel’s earlier criticism of the Mar-a-Lago search, which he had described as “unlawful”, and his characterisation of participating agents as “corrupt government gangsters” before he became FBI director. The lawsuit argues that the employees’ dismissals were part of a wider effort to remove FBI personnel connected to investigations involving Trump. Then-acting FBI director Brian Driscoll resisted the demand, which employees viewed as a possible step towards mass dismissals.
An FBI search of the property in 2022 recovered classified records. Trump denied wrongdoing, and the case was dismissed in 2024 by US District Judge Aileen Cannon, who ruled that special counsel Jack Smith had been unlawfully appointed by the Justice Department under the Biden administration. The employees say they were assigned to the classified documents investigation through their work on specialised counterintelligence and counterespionage teams, rather than volunteering for the case. They allege the administration assumed their work reflected political opposition to Trump, despite having no evidence that their personal views influenced their conduct. The investigation led to a federal indictment in Florida charging Trump with dozens of felony counts.