2 ex-FBI agents say in a lawsuit they were fired for their roles in Trump election investigation

FBI Director Kash Patel, listens during a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing to examine worldwide threats, Thursday, March 19, 2026, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)

WASHINGTON — Two agents fired from the FBI last year said in a federal lawsuit Thursday that they were terminated “solely” because of their participation in an investigation into U.S. President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The two agents, identified as John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 in the lawsuit, are part of a broader group of employees fired over the past year for their role in the election investigation known as Arctic Frost. Their lawsuit is the latest in a series of court challenges to a personnel purge under FBI Director Kash Patel that has targeted agents who either contributed to investigations of the Republican president or were perceived as out of step with the administration’s agenda.

The agents say they were abruptly terminated last fall despite spotless disciplinary records and “exemplary” ratings on performance reviews. Both say they were given no explanation but that the terminations came soon after Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who along with other Trump allies has asserted that Arctic Frost was politically motivated, released unredacted Justice Department documents related to the investigation that exposed one of the agents’ names.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, seeks reinstatement and a court declaration that the terminations were unlawful.

“Plaintiffs’ terminations were unlawful because they were based on a perception that Plaintiffs were not political supporters of President Trump,” the lawsuit states. “Political support for President Trump is not a legal or appropriate requirement for the effective performance of Plaintiffs’ respective roles within the FBI. Accordingly, perceived lack of political support for President Trump is an impermissible basis for termination of Plaintiffs’ FBI employment.”

The FBI declined to comment.

One of the fired agents in the lawsuit said he was about to go trick-or-treating with his children last Halloween when he was summoned to the FBI’s Washington field, where he worked, and given a termination notice. Days later, the other agent, described in the lawsuit as either the only case agent or the most senior case agent on active local public corruption cases, was similarly summoned and told that, he, too, was being fired.

“In Arctic Frost, as in all other investigations to which they were assigned, Plaintiffs fully adhered to DOJ policies and procedures, including applicable statutory and regulatory requirements, and executed their law enforcement duties without bias or political motive,” the lawsuit says.

One of the two fired agents joined the FBI more than 20 years ago, specialized in white-collar, public corruption and fraud cases and received a Medal of Excellence for his performance, the lawsuit says. The other agent graduated from the FBI Academy in 2018 and at the time of his firing was working on public corruption cases and had directly briefed Patel on a particular investigation.

The agents were assigned for a time to a supporting, rather than leading, role in the investigation into Trump’s efforts to remain in power following his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

One of the agents’ lawyers, Margaret Donovan, said in a statement that Patel went back on a promise not to fire agents based on the cases they were assigned. She said her clients “were among the Bureau’s finest, and they deserve better.” Added another of their lawyers, Elizabeth Tulis: “These agents did exactly what they were trained to do: they accepted an assignment from their supervisors and carried it out professionally and apolitically.”

Other fired employees who have sued include agents who were photographed kneeling during a racial justice protest in 2020 and a group of senior officials, including the former acting director of the FBI, who were terminated last summer. The firings have continued, with Patel last month pushing out a group of agents in the Washington field office who had been involved in investigating Trump’s retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after his first term.

Testifying before a House committee Thursday, Patel brushed aside Democratic concerns that the dismissal of counterintelligence agents with expertise in Iran could weaken national security at a time when the U.S. is at war with Tehran.

“There’s 36,000 people employed at this FBI. And I reject the notion wholeheartedly that the termination of those that were weaponizing law enforcement are the only ones that can do the mission,” Patel said.

Eric Tucker, The Associated Press