David Maltinsky, a 16-year FBI employee who was three weeks from graduating as a special agent, was fired on October 1, 2025 in a letter signed by Director Kash Patel. “I have determined that you exercised poor judgment with an inappropriate display of political signage in your work area,” Patel wrote, referring to a Pride flag Maltinsky had displayed at his former workstation in the Los Angeles field office. According to Maltinsky's lawsuit, the flag had flown outside the bureau's Los Angeles federal building in 2021 and was later given to him in recognition of his work supporting LGBTQ+ employees; when a colleague complained in early 2025, his supervisor called the display permissible and the field office's chief legal counsel found it violated no FBI policy.
Maltinsky sued in federal court in Washington in November 2025, alleging violations of the First Amendment and of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. In June 2026 the Justice Department moved to dismiss his discrimination and retaliation claims, among others, arguing the complaint does not plausibly show he was fired for being gay; it did not challenge his First Amendment claim. On July 15, 2026, Maltinsky's lawyers opposed that motion and asked U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon to schedule a case management conference so discovery, including internal FBI records and testimony about the firing decision, can begin while the motion is pending. “Defendants freely admitted — in writing — that they fired Maltinsky because he displayed that flag,” the opposition states.
Discovery is the point. Termination decisions leave paper: who flagged the flag, who elevated it, and whether the stated rationale matches the internal one. His lawyers also allege that other FBI employees were allowed to display thin blue line flags, Gadsden flags and Punisher skull imagery. Patel told senators in September 2025 that personnel actions at the FBI are “based on merit and qualification.” The case sits alongside the other challenges to firings at Patel's FBI (see Patel Fires About a Dozen FBI Staff From the Trump Documents Case After Revealing That Smith's Team Subpoenaed His Phone Records and The FBI Fired Two Analysts Who Refused to Work on Patel's Investigation of Georgia's 2020 Election).
Correction (October 2, 2026): An earlier version of the title said Maltinsky had won the right to obtain the bureau's records. He has asked the judge to allow discovery; no ruling on that request appears in the sources. The entry was also dated July 16, the day of the Advocate's report; the filings were made July 15.