Nine Fired FBI Employees Sue, Saying They Were Purged for Working on Trump Documents Case
The 70-page suit says Kash Patel fired the agents and analysts over two days in February citing only 'Article II,' with no investigation, notice or appeal.
WASHINGTON — Nine former FBI employees sued the bureau on Thursday, saying they were unlawfully fired merely for working on former special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into President Trump's retention of classified records after his first term.
The plaintiffs, who include special agents, intelligence analysts and staff operation specialists, worked on counterintelligence investigations. They were fired over two days in February 2026, just as the United States and Israel were set to begin military strikes against Iran. They are the latest of a growing number of former FBI agents and other personnel to sue the Justice Department and the bureau after abrupt terminations. Many of those fired worked on matters that displeased Trump and his allies.
The plaintiffs "were unlawfully terminated not for any cause or any legitimate reason, but only to satisfy the President's personal vendetta," the lawsuit alleges. "The firings did not follow any internal investigation or disciplinary process within the FBI, and Plaintiffs were not given any notice, a hearing, or an opportunity to appeal. Instead, Patel claimed to rely solely upon 'Article II' to support the firings," the suit says, referring to FBI Director Kash Patel and the section of the Constitution that sets out presidential powers.
The 70-page complaint was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It names the FBI, Patel, Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Justice Department as defendants. CBS News said it had asked the Justice Department and the FBI for comment.
The underlying case began when FBI agents executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 and allegedly recovered more than 100 documents with classified markings. In 2023, Smith's office indicted Trump on more than three dozen charges related to retaining the records and obstructing efforts to retrieve them. The federal judge overseeing the case dismissed the charges, ruling that Smith was unlawfully appointed. The Justice Department formally abandoned its appeal after Trump won the 2024 election.
The plaintiffs cite public comments from top Justice Department officials and from the president as evidence of political motive. Blanche, who was deputy attorney general when the employees were let go, said the administration had "cleaned house" at the FBI by firing people associated with investigations involving the president.
The suit also adds new details about the firings. Counterintelligence section chief Jennifer Bacon learned she was being let go shortly after an agent named Miles Starr asked for access to the classified investigative files on Plasmic Echo, the codename for the documents investigation. According to the lawsuit, Starr was a member of Patel's Director's Advisory Team, a group of agents from around the country who support his policy goals. He was also the lead case agent who testified in the since-dismissed indictment charging former FBI Director James Comey with lying to Congress. A federal magistrate judge later criticized that testimony, accusing the FBI of numerous missteps, including a failure to filter out potentially privileged materials.
