Fired FBI staff sue Patel over Trump documents probe

Nine former FBI employees who worked on the investigation into Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents filed a lawsuit in Washington on Thursday, saying they were unlawfully fired and asking to be reinstated.

The plaintiffs are special agents, intelligence analysts and staff operations specialists, according to CBS News and The Associated Press. They were fired over two days in February 2026, and the complaint calls the firings political retribution. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

CBS News reported the defendants are the FBI, Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Department of Justice. The plaintiffs are asking for reinstatement, back pay and a declaration that the firings were unlawful, the AP reported.

The lawsuit says the employees were fired “not for any cause or any legitimate reason,” CBS News reported. It says they received no internal investigation, notice, hearing or chance to appeal, which their lawyers argue the law requires. It also says Patel relied solely on Article II of the Constitution to justify the terminations.

The employees were assigned to the investigation, code-named Plasmic Echo, through counterintelligence and counterespionage squads, rather than volunteering for it, the complaint says. The AP reported their previous work included the Boston Marathon bombing investigation, hostage recoveries and the investigation of the assassination attempt in Butler, Pa.

Their lawyers, Margaret Donovan, Abbe Lowell and Rebecca Tinio, said the employees “did their jobs” and were fired for it, according to CBS News.

The complaint cites a public statement by Blanche that the administration had “cleaned house” at the FBI, CBS News reported. Patel has told Congress that fired employees had weaponized the FBI, the AP reported. Neither article included a response from the FBI or the Justice Department to the new lawsuit.

The classified documents case against Trump followed a 2022 FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. Trump pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case in 2024, ruling that special counsel Jack Smith had been unlawfully appointed.

The allegations in the complaint have not been tested in court. The case is one of several legal challenges by former FBI employees over firings during Patel’s tenure.

No Canadian angle was identified in the coverage. The case is a U.S. employment and constitutional dispute.

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