Three FBI agents who were fired under the Trump administration are suing the agency to be restored to their positions.
The agents who lost their jobs were part of the investigation into President Donald Trump’s supposed mishandling of classified documents.
From The Associated Press:
Three fired FBI agents sued on Tuesday to try to get their jobs back, saying in a class action lawsuit that they were illegally punished for their participation in an investigation into President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
The federal lawsuit adds to the mounting list of court challenges to a personnel purge by FBI Director Kash Patel that over the last year has resulted in the ousters of dozens of agents, either because of their involvement in investigations related to Trump or because they were perceived as insufficiently loyal to the Republican president’s agenda.
The lawsuit in federal court in Washington was technically filed on behalf of just three agents but may have much broader implications given that its request for class action status could open the door for agents fired since the start of the Trump administration to get their jobs back.
The three agents — Michelle Ball, Jamie Garman and Blaire Toleman — were fired last October and November in what they say was a “retribution campaign” targeting them for their work on the investigation into Trump. The agents had between eight and 14 years of “exemplary and unblemished” service in the FBI and expected to spend the remainder of their careers at the bureau but were abruptly fired without cause and without being given a chance to respond, the lawsuit says.
“Serving the American people as FBI agents was the highest honor of our lives,” they said in a statement. “We took an oath to uphold the Constitution, followed the facts wherever they led and never compromised our integrity. Our removal from federal service — without due process and based on a false perception of political bias — is a profound injustice that raises serious concerns about political interference in federal law enforcement.”
AP - Three FBI agents fired after investigating Trump file class action suit alleging 'retribution campaign'
— Yara.307 (@307Yara) March 31, 2026
FBI agents sued bc they were illegally punished for their investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.https://t.co/akrYWIPdBO
The classified documents case centered on boxes of sensitive national security records that the FBI recovered when it raided President Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago in 2022. Prosecutors working for special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump in 2023 for unlawfully retaining defense information and obstructing efforts to recover the documents.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon threw out the indictment in July 2024, finding that Smith’s appointment as special counsel violated the Constitution’s Appointments Clause. An appeals court agreed with her ruling and dismissed the charges.
The investigation was part of a broader effort on the part of Democrats to use the justice system to prevent Trump from winning a second term in office. They sought to prosecute him for challenging the outcome of the 2020 election. In Fulton County, Georgia, Democrats sought to imprison him for his alleged efforts to overturn the election results in the state.
After taking office, the Trump administration fired several agents involved in the politically-motivated prosecution efforts.
