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.The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington on Thursday, names agents, intelligence analysts and staff operations specialists who were dismissed in February. The plaintiffs say they were targeted despite carrying out assigned duties and following established law enforcement procedures.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.The nine employees deny Patel’s assertion that those dismissed had “weaponized” the bureau. Their combined experience spans more than 100 years and includes work on the Boston Marathon bombing, hostage recoveries and the 2024 assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.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. “To this administration, this is an offense. To the rest of us, it is heroic,” as cited by AP.The lawsuit seeks the employees’ reinstatement, back pay and a court declaration that their dismissals were unlawful. It argues that the terminations damaged national security by removing experienced personnel from the FBI.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, known within the FBI as “Plasmic Echo”, focused on classified records Trump retained after leaving the White House in 2021. Prosecutors alleged that he stored sensitive documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, showed some to people without authorisation and obstructed efforts to recover them.An FBI search of the property in 2022 recovered classified records. The investigation led to a federal indictment in Florida charging Trump with dozens of felony counts. 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 lawsuit argues that the employees’ dismissals were part of a wider effort to remove FBI personnel connected to investigations involving Trump. 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 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. Then-acting FBI director Brian Driscoll resisted the demand, which employees viewed as a possible step towards mass dismissals.The plaintiffs say further rounds of dismissals followed at the FBI and Justice Department, without the hearings, notice or disciplinary procedures they believe the law requires.“The Plaintiffs were unlawfully terminated not for any cause or any legitimate reason, but only to satisfy the President’s personal vendetta,” the lawsuit states. It adds that the employees received no notice, hearing or opportunity to appeal and that no internal investigation or disciplinary process preceded their dismissals.
