By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-10-16 14:31:13 | Updated at 2026-10-16 15:03:52
42 minutes ago
Nine agents, intelligence analysts, and staff operations specialists whom FBI Director Kash Patel fired for their roles in the investigation of President Donald Trump’s alleged retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida have sued their former employer.
In a complaint filed in federal court in Washington on Thursday, and seen by The Epoch Times, attorneys Margaret Donovan, Abbe Lowell, and Rebecca Tinio say the decision to fire the nine was an act of “political retribution.”
Patel sent a letter to counterintelligence section chief Jennifer Bacon, the lead plaintiff, on Feb. 25, 2026, in which he summarily dismissed her.
“You have exercised poor judgment and a lack of impartiality in carrying out duties, leading to the political weaponization of the government,” Patel wrote.
In the complaint, the attorneys for Bacon say Patel’s actions were improper acts of political retribution, in violation of the First Amendment.
“Plaintiffs’ terminations were unlawful, in part, because they were based on an incorrect perception that Plaintiffs’ involvement in legitimate law enforcement activities, particularly the investigation of Trump’s unlawful retention and mishandling of classified documents, was born of political motives and constituted acts of political disloyalty to Trump,” the complaint states.
“It [the First Amendment] forbids government officials from firing government employees merely for not supporting a political ideology, party, or agenda,” the complaint states.
The FBI’s codename for the operation against Trump, “Plasmic Echo,” was first revealed in April 2024.
Plasmic Echo was an investigation into allegations that Trump or his staff improperly stored dozens of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, after leaving the White House in January 2021, showed them to unauthorized people, and obstructed the FBI’s efforts to recover them.
When the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, Trump described it as “dark times for our Nation.”
Raid ‘Not Necessary or Appropriate’: Trump
“After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Aug. 8, 2022.
In June 2023, a federal indictment in Florida charged Trump with making false statements, concealing documents, and conspiring to obstruct justice.
After Trump won the election in November 2024, Special Counsel Jack Smith dropped the charges against Trump, and later resigned.
Bacon’s complaint against Patel, Attorney General Todd Blanche, and the Department of Justice says the nine fired FBI staff were never politically motivated.
“By casting Plaintiffs’ work on the Plasmic Echo investigation as ‘politically weaponized,’ Defendants incorrectly presumed to know the personal political convictions of Plaintiffs and took unlawful action based on that presumption,” stated the complaint against Patel.
“Worse still, Defendants incorrectly concluded that those personal political convictions affected or drove their work.”
A letter from acting archivist of the United States Debra Steidel Wall to former President Donald Trump's legal team, photographed on Aug. 23, 2022. Jon Elswick/AP
The complaint says the nine FBI staff who were fired had between them more than 100 years of distinguished service, including the Boston Marathon bombing investigation, various hostage recoveries, and the investigation into the 2024 assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Penn.
‘They Performed Their Duties Apolitically’
“Plaintiffs worked on the Plasmic Echo investigation with the same rigor as they had for all of their assignments with the FBI,” Donovan, Lowell and Tinio said in their complaint.
“They performed their duties apolitically, in accordance with the FBI’s policies and procedures, and with the utmost professionalism, diligence, and care.”
The Epoch Times reached out to the FBI for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
In March, two former FBI agents sued Patel after they were allegedly fired for their role in “Arctic Frost,” the agency’s investigation into Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election result.
Patel accused them of being “corrupt actors” who had “weaponized law enforcement.”
In November 2022, when he launched his 2024 election campaign, Trump vowed to clean house at the FBI and DOJ.
“As I have said before, the gravest threats to our civilization are not from abroad, but from within,” Trump said.
“None is greater than the weaponization of the justice system, the FBI, and the DOJ. We must conduct a top-to-bottom overhaul to clean out the festering rot and corruption of Washington, D.C.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
