Nine FBI agents file suit

Nine former FBI employees sued FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Todd Blanche on Thursday, claiming they were fired without cause for working on the classified documents investigation into President Donald Trump.

The timing of the firings

FBI Special Agent Miles Starr demanded urgent access to the classified documents case file on February twenty-third, after video circulated of Patel chugging a beer and flinging alcohol around the U.S.

Access to the case file

The case file, code-named Plasmic Echo, contained the names of agents who worked on the investigation. Within days of Starr accessing it, those agents were summarily fired without required due process, the suit says.

The termination letters

Each plaintiff received a termination letter signed by Director Patel falsely claiming they exercised poor judgment and lack of impartiality, leading to political weaponization of government, the suit alleges.

“poor judgment and a lack of impartiality in carrying out their duties, leading to the political weaponization of the government”

Patel's contradictory claims

Patel later told Congress the employees were fired for cause after internal investigations. The suit says these claims are not true.

The nine plaintiffs

Jennifer Bacon, Zach Feldman, Gilbert Granados, Catherine Herrera, Harrison Kaufman, Jeremy Linton, Erin Matanic, Danielle Ray and Rachel Vaccaro collectively have over a century of FBI service and worked on high-profile investigations.

Their prior work

The group had worked on cases including the Boston Marathon bombing and the investigation into the attempted assassination of Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Assignment, not volunteering

The former employees did not volunteer for the classified documents case. They were assigned because they were members of specific FBI Counterintelligence and Intelligence squads and performed their duties apolitically, the suit says.

National security impact

The nine were involved in ongoing sensitive counterintelligence and counterterrorism investigations globally. Their hasty firings meant investigations were not properly transferred, affecting national security immeasurably, the suit claims.

The original investigation

The agents' work on the classified documents case led to Trump being charged in June twenty twenty-three with lying and scheming to mislead federal investigators to retain sensitive materials he knew were classified.

The case was dismissed

Trump pleaded not guilty and was later charged with obstruction.U.S.District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, found special counsel Jack Smith was appointed improperly and dismissed the case.

Alleged pattern of revenge

The suit says employees who worked on Trump investigations were doomed because Trump and top officials made clear they intended to exact revenge against anyone Trump deemed to have wronged him.

The lawyers' statement

Attorneys Margaret Donovan, Abbe D. Lowell and Rebecca S. Tinio said the suit would prove their clients were unlawfully fired and hold the Trump administration accountable for this blatant attack on the rule of law.

“Because they did their jobs, as they always did, to follow the facts and law without bias or favor. To this administration, this is an offense. To the rest of us, it is heroic.”

What the plaintiffs seek

The lawsuit seeks reinstatement of the nine employees to their jobs and back pay for the time they have missed since their firings.