FBI Director Kash Patel testifies before the House Judiciary Committee last week.

In mid-January, a veteran FBI agent named Brian Driscoll received a phone call from Paul Ingrassia, who identified himself as a transition liaison between the White House and the U.S. Justice Department. Mr. Ingrassia said he was calling because Mr. Driscoll was under consideration for “a high-level position at the FBI.”

Their interview, described in a federal lawsuit filed last week by Mr. Driscoll and two other recently fired senior FBI officials, began with benign questions about the gravest threats to the nation and possible adjustments to the FBI’s structure, but then took a swerve: Who had Mr. Driscoll voted for? When did he start supporting President Donald J. Trump? And had he voted for a Democrat in the past five elections? He declined to answer those three, noting to the 29-year-old attorney and former podcaster that the questions were inappropriate and potentially violative of the Hatch Act.

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Mr. Ingrassia asked another question that would in the ensuing weeks take on greater significance: Did Mr. Driscoll think the FBI agents who had........

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