For the second time in less than a month, former FBI agents involved in former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of President Donald Trump have sued, alleging wrongful termination.
Three former agents, Jamie Garman, Blaire Toleman, and Michelle Ball, sued in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, naming FBI Director Kash Patel and former Attorney General Pam Bondi as defendants.
The agents worked in the Washington Field Office and were assigned to Smith’s “Arctic Frost” probe of Trump’s challenge to the outcome of the 2020 election. The investigation took place during the Biden administration.
The complaint says the Trump administration “embarked on a public campaign” to fire the agents “because Defendants perceived them to be political opponents.” They proposed a class action lawsuit of 50 former FBI employees terminated since Trump’s second term began in January 2025.
Trump and supporters have argued that Smith’s probe was politically motivated and lacked the predicate of an actual crime.
Meanwhile, Congress is investigating methods used by the Justice Department in the probe that included surveilling members’ phone records.
“Over the past five years, Defendants Patel and Bondi were personally embroiled, as fact witnesses or attorneys representing adverse parties, in investigations brought by the FBI, through the FBI’s career employees,” the complaint says.
“And now, by virtue of presidential appointment to the pinnacle of federal law enforcement, Defendants are abusing their positions to claim victories that eluded them on the merits.”
Spokespersons for the FBI and the Justice Department did not respond to an inquiry for this story by publication time.
The lawsuit claimed the firings violated proper personnel procedures and the First Amendment, as political targeting.
The lawsuit also claimed some FBI employees were fired for public support of the LGBTQ+ movement, while others were removed for support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“On information and belief, the proposed class includes at least 50 FBI employees who have already been terminated under the circumstances set forth herein, and the size of the proposed class will grow because Defendants continue to terminate FBI employees for the same reasons in the same manner,” the lawsuit said.
A previous lawsuit was filed in late March by two unnamed former FBI agents, John Doe 1 and John Doe 2. The complaint made similar arguments but did not aim for a large class action lawsuit.
