Nine former FBI employees sued the FBI and the Justice Department on Thursday, saying they were fired in February for working on Jack Smith's classified-documents investigation into Donald Trump. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and says the dismissals came over two days, without notice, a hearing or any chance to appeal.
The nine plaintiffs worked as special agents, intelligence analysts and staff operation specialists on counterintelligence matters, and they say the terminations were driven by politics rather than job performance. Jennifer Bacon learned she was being let go shortly after Miles Starr sought access to classified investigative files tied to Plasmic Echo, an episode the complaint links to the broader handling of the case.
The lawsuit lands at a moment when the fight over the Trump documents probe remains active in the public record. In August 2022, FBI agents searched Mar-a-Lago and said they recovered more than 100 documents with classified markings. In 2023, Smith's office brought more than three dozen charges over Trump's alleged retention of the records and efforts to obstruct their return, but a federal judge later dismissed the case after finding Smith was unlawfully appointed special counsel. The Justice Department then abandoned its appeal after Trump won the 2024 election.
The complaint also attacks the process behind the firings. It says the FBI carried out no internal investigation or disciplinary review, and that Kash Patel relied only on Article II to justify the removals. The suit names the FBI, Patel, Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Justice Department as defendants, and cites public comments by top officials as evidence that the terminations were meant to punish employees tied to politically sensitive work.
That is where the case cuts against the public line. Blanche said the administration had “cleaned house” at the FBI by removing people connected to investigations involving the president, while the former employees say they were unlawfully terminated “not for any cause or any legitimate reason, but only to satisfy the President’s personal vendetta.” The filing also says Starr, who was a member of Patel’s Director's Advisory Team, was the lead case agent who testified in the later-dismissed indictment of James Comey, and that a federal magistrate judge criticized the FBI for numerous missteps tied to that testimony.
The lawsuit adds to a growing set of challenges from former FBI personnel who say they were pushed out without fair process after working on matters that angered Donald Trump and his allies. What happens next is now simple and blunt: the defendants will have to answer whether the bureau can fire employees tied to a politically charged investigation with no internal review at all.
