Nine former FBI employees sue to regain jobs after Trump documents probe firings

Nine former FBI employees who worked on the investigation into Donald Trump’s retention of classified documents sued FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Todd Blanche on October 15, 2026, seeking reinstatement and back pay. The former agents, intelligence analysts and staff operations specialists allege they were fired because of that work, without cause or required due process.

The suit puts the employees’ dismissals before a court after the criminal case that prompted their investigation was dismissed. Their account of why they lost their jobs is an allegation in the lawsuit, not a finding by a judge.

What the lawsuit says happened before the firings

The complaint says Starr did not explain what he needed and said he was acting on Patel’s instructions, CBS reported. The Associated Press reported that the suit also places the firings after Patel disclosed to Reuters that the FBI had subpoenaed his telephone toll records during the investigation. Such records show the dates, times and lengths of calls, rather than their content.

CBS reported that the employees cite public comments by senior Justice Department officials and Trump as evidence of political animus. That claimed motive remains unresolved. NBC News reported that the complaint also says the nine were handling sensitive counterintelligence and counterterrorism investigations and alleges their abrupt departures disrupted the transfer of those matters.

The classified-documents case behind the dispute

The FBI investigation followed Trump’s retention of classified records after his first presidential term and led to a 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago property. The resulting federal case charged him with dozens of felony counts. Trump denied wrongdoing. In 2024, the judge overseeing the case dismissed it after ruling that special counsel Jack Smith had been unlawfully appointed; the Justice Department later abandoned its appeal after Trump won the 2024 election.