FBI agents who investigated Trump say they were fired to settle president's personal vendetta, sue Kash Patel

Nine former FBI employees who helped investigate Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents are taking his administration to court, claiming they were fired simply because the president wanted revenge.

The group sued FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Justice Department on Thursday, October 15, alleging their dismissals in February had nothing to do with misconduct.

Some of these employees had spent years investigating serious threats to American security. Their combined experience exceeded 100 years, with assignments ranging from the Boston Marathon bombing to the 2024 assassination attempt against Trump.

Yet none was given a hearing or a chance to appeal before being dismissed, according to the lawsuit.

The nine employees had worked on the FBI investigation into classified documents recovered from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. They say they never volunteered for the assignment but were placed on the case through their regular counterintelligence duties.

Their lawyers argue that those assignments ultimately cost them their careers.

The complaint also revisits Patel's public attacks on the investigation. Before becoming FBI director, he had called agents involved in the Mar-a-Lago search “corrupt government gangsters.”

Patel has defended his broader dismissals of FBI personnel, telling Congress that employees he fired had weaponized the bureau.

The lawsuit alleges the nine employees were removed shortly after revelations that investigators had obtained Patel's telephone records during the classified documents probe.

Trump was charged in the case in 2023 but denied wrongdoing. A federal judge dismissed the charges in 2024 after ruling that special counsel Jack Smith had been improperly appointed.

The former employees now want their jobs back, along with lost wages and a court ruling declaring their dismissals unlawful.