Nine Fired FBI Employees Sue Over Dismissals Tied to Trump Documents Probe
publishers 22articles 22first reported 15 Oct, 18:15 UTCdeveloping since 16 Oct · 7 editions
Nine former FBI employees have sued the Justice Department and FBI Director Kash Patel, alleging they were unlawfully fired because they worked on the investigation into President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks to restore their jobs. The plaintiffs include special agents, staff operations specialists and intelligence analysts who were assigned to the investigation, known internally as “Plasmic Echo.”
According to the complaint, Patel dismissed the nine employees over two days in February 2026 without an internal investigation, disciplinary proceedings, notice, a hearing or an opportunity to appeal. The plaintiffs allege the terminations violated their First and Fifth Amendment rights and were intended to satisfy Trump’s “personal vendetta,” rather than address job performance or misconduct.
The complaint also challenges the administration’s reliance on presidential authority under Article II of the Constitution as justification for the firings. The former employees argue that rationale improperly treats career federal workers as political appointees whose employment depends on perceived loyalty to the president.
The lawsuit says Attorney General Todd Blanche later described the administration as having “cleaned house” at the FBI by removing personnel connected to investigations of Trump, including the classified-documents and Jan. 6 cases led by former special counsel Jack Smith.
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Written from 7 articles, 1 with the publisher's own text; 7 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 22 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
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- This version written
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