An FBI agent trainee is challenging the Trump administration and FBI Director Kash Patel’s attempts to quash his lawsuit against them for wrongful termination.
David Maltinsky was fired in 2025 for displaying a Pride flag at his workstation — a flag the FBI had given to him and sanctioned the display of. He was terminated from employment by Patel three weeks before he was to graduate from the FBI Academy at Quantico.
Maltinsky had worked for the bureau more than 16 years and completed 16 weeks of its 19-week special agent training program. Patel’s termination letter said Maltinsky exercised “poor judgment” by displaying “political signage” at his workstation.
The “political signage” in question was a progress Pride flag previously flown outside the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles and later given to him in recognition of his work supporting LGBTQ employees. He displayed it with a small placard describing its history.
FBI Director Kash Patel speaks at a news conference July 1, 2026 at Briefing Room/DOJ in Washington DC, USA. (Lenin Nolly/Sipa USA via AP Images)
While Patel found the Pride flag offensive, the Trump administration allows other FBI employees to display Thin Blue Line flags, Gadsden flags and Punisher skull imagery, Maltinsky’s lawyers said.
Maltinsky’s lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia began in November 2025 but recently was stalled by the administration’s attempt to dismiss key parts of the suit. His latest motion asks the court to allow discovery to proceed, which would make public internal documents and statements by Patel, as well as the names of FBI employees who complained about the presence of the Pride flag.
Maltinsky’s legal team says the government’s attempt to subvert discovery are meritless.
“David Maltinsky served the FBI and this country with honor for more than 16 years, only to be fired for displaying a Pride flag that the FBI gave him in recognition of his efforts to strengthen the bureau,” said Christopher M. Mattei, a partner at Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder and counsel for Maltinsky. “Instead of answering for their unlawful actions, Director Patel and the DOJ are making baseless arguments in an effort to delay justice and shield from public view the cruel discrimination that led to David’s firing.”
“David was boldly moved to a life of public service after the Pulse nightclub shooting claimed 49 lives in 2016, and in the years that followed he was an exceptional employee on track to become a special agent. Then Kash Patel and the Trump administration targeted him not just for his speech, but for who he is,” said Nathaniel Zelinsky of the Washington Litigation Group. “This shocking abuse of an honorable member of the federal law enforcement community cries out for justice.”
The Trump administration is beholden to a conservative evangelical voting bloc that generally opposes the LGBTQ community and disdains Pride flags and Pride celebrations.