Former FBI agents who worked on Trump election investigation sue Patel, Bondi

A group of former FBI agents who worked on the investigation into President Trump’s alleged subversion of the 2020 presidential election sued FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday over their dismissals from the bureau.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., alleges that Patel and Bondi violated the former agents’ First and Fifth Amendment rights by firing them. 

The former agents, Jamie Garman, Blaire Toleman and Michelle Ball, amassed “exemplary” records of service during multiple years at the FBI, the 48-page complaint states. In fact, the first sentence of the complaint states that the plaintiffs “have faithfully served our country—doing the right thing, the right way, for the right reasons,” a reference to a mantra used by former FBI Director Christopher Wray, whom Trump replaced with Patel upon his return to the White House. 

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Despite those records, all three individuals were terminated by the FBI last fall without notice of any charges against them, the complaint alleges. The lawsuit asks that the court grant the plaintiffs declaratory and injunctive relief by requiring the FBI to “immediately reinstate” them and bar the bureau “from taking any further adverse personnel action” against the former agents. 

The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI both told The Hill they do not comment on pending legal matters.

This is not the first time that former FBI agents who worked the case against Trump, which was taken over by former special counsel Jack Smith in 2022, have sued over being fired. Earlier this month, two unnamed former agents sued Patel and Bondi and alleged they were dismissed “solely” because of their work on the investigation.  

Since the president returned to office, the FBI has fired about 45 agents. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche bragged last week that the DOJ, as well as the FBI, had “cleaned house” by dismissing agents who worked on cases involving Trump. 

“There isn’t a single man or woman with a gun — federal agent — still in that organization that had anything to do with the prosecution of President Trump,” Blanche said of the FBI during an interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Grapevine, Texas.

Rebecca Beitsch contributed reporting.

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