Fired FBI agents who investigated Trump sue Kash Patel

Nine former FBI employees who helped investigate President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents have sued his administration, saying they were fired only because the president wanted revenge.

The group sued FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Justice Department on Thursday, alleging that their dismissals in February had nothing to do with misconduct, Geo News reported.

Who they are

Between them, the nine have more than 100 years of experience, with assignments ranging from the Boston Marathon bombing to the 2024 assassination attempt against Trump. Some had spent years investigating serious threats to American security.

They worked on the FBI investigation into classified documents found at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. They say they never volunteered for the case but were assigned to it through their regular counterintelligence duties, and their lawyers argue those assignments cost them their careers.

None was given a hearing or a chance to appeal before being dismissed, the lawsuit says.

The claims

• Revenge: the firings were meant to settle the president’s “personal vendetta”, the former employees say
• Timing: they were removed shortly after it emerged that investigators had obtained Patel’s telephone records during the documents probe
• Patel’s words: before becoming FBI director, Patel called agents involved in the Mar-a-Lago search “corrupt government gangsters”
• What they want: their jobs back, lost wages and a court ruling that their dismissals were unlawful

Patel has defended his wider dismissals of FBI staff, telling Congress that the employees he fired had weaponised the bureau.

The documents case

Trump was charged in the classified documents case in 2023 and denied wrongdoing. A federal judge dismissed the charges in 2024 after ruling that special counsel Jack Smith had been improperly appointed.

A pattern of pursuing critics

The lawsuit comes as Trump’s Justice Department faces criticism for targeting his perceived opponents. During his second term, it has charged former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and former national security adviser John Bolton, Reuters has reported. The case against James and one of the two cases against Comey were thrown out by a federal judge, while Bolton pleaded guilty and is due to be sentenced later this month. The department has also investigated Democratic lawmakers who urged the military not to follow illegal orders, Senator Adam Schiff and Federal Reserve officials Jerome Powell and Lisa Cook. Grand juries and federal judges have stymied several other probes.

This week, federal agents searched the home of Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, an outspoken Trump critic, in what she called political intimidation, three weeks before the November 3 midterm elections. Justice Department policy bars prosecutors and agents from timing any action to affect an election.

Why it matters

The case will test whether career investigators can be dismissed for the work they were assigned to do. If the court sides with the agents, it would be a check on the administration’s campaign against those it sees as enemies. Read our report on the raid on Ilhan Omar’s home.

This article draws on reporting by Geo News and Reuters.