FBI agents Michelle Ball, Jamie Garman, and Blaire Toleman have filed a class action lawsuit claiming they allegedly fell victim to Donald Trump‘s “retribution campaign” carried out by his FBI Director, Kash Patel. The agents were fired in October and November 2025 for participating in a probe into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
They are now trying to get back their jobs through the lawsuit, which states that the agents have roughly eight to 14 years of “exemplary and unblemished” service with the FBI. They were expected to continue the rest of their careers with the bureau. However, their service abruptly ended without clear cause, and they were also not given a chance to respond, as per the lawsuit.
JUST IN: FBI agents who worked on Trump probes have filed a class action lawsuit, saying their abrupt firings violated due process and civil service laws. https://t.co/dBdg4AeTC6
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) March 31, 2026
The lawsuit statement said, “Serving the American people as FBI agents was the highest honor of our lives. We took an oath to uphold the Constitution, followed the facts wherever they led, and never compromised our integrity. Our removal from federal service — without due process and based on a false perception of political bias — is a profound injustice that raises serious concerns about political interference in federal law enforcement.”
The firings of Ball, Garman, and Toleman were not isolated incidents. The lawsuit alleges that Patel ousted dozens of agents involved in investigations against Trump or who simply did not fit his agenda.
The three agents were part of the investigation stemming from a 2023 indictment from special counsel Jack Smith. Smith accused Trump of illegally scheming to overturn his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden. Smith also accused the POTUS of illegally hoarding classified documents at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.
NEW: FBI officials have filed a class action lawsuit aiming to block the identification of agents who worked on Jan. 6 / Mar-a-Lago cases.
w/ @joshgerstein https://t.co/4ibpPToWKe pic.twitter.com/Ve01APoIpv
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) February 4, 2025
After Trump won the 2024 election, both investigations were dropped, as the Justice Department prohibits federal indictment of a sitting president. As per the lawsuit, the three agents were fired after the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley, released documents known as Arctic Frost. The documents included files showing Smith’s team subpoenaed the phone records of some Republican lawmakers. The revelation angered many of Trump’s allies in Congress.
However, Dan Eisenberg, who now represents the agents, said that they were not given the chance to be heard. The lawyer insisted that they were fired without a proper investigation or notice of charges.
Eisenberg said, “This lawsuit seeks to reaffirm fundamental constitutional protections for FBI employees, ensuring they can perform their duties without fear or favor. We all benefit when law enforcement officers’ only loyalty is to facts and the truth.”
