联邦调查局员工起诉称，帕特尔向国会虚假描述了他们的解雇情况。该诉讼还暗示，解雇的一个动因是联邦调查局局长卡什·帕特尔前往米兰观看奥运会后受到了严厉审查。
F.B.I. Employees Sue, Saying Patel Falsely Described Their Firings to Congress The lawsuit also suggests that a motivating factor for the dismissals was the intense scrutiny of the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, after he went to the Olympics in Milan.
周四，9名因曾参与唐纳德·J·特朗普调查而在今年早些时候被解雇的联邦调查局员工起诉了政府，称联邦调查局局长卡什·帕特尔在解雇他们之前曾在私下赞扬过其中一些人。
Nine F.B.I. employees who were fired earlier this year for having worked on an investigation of Donald J. Trump sued the administration on Thursday, saying Kash Patel, the bureau’s director, praised some of them privately before terminating them.
大多数被解雇的员工包括特工、分析师和行动人员，他们在涉及伊朗的反情报工作方面拥有丰富经验。一些人在针对特朗普先生在佛罗里达州海湖庄园俱乐部和庄园处理涉密文件案的调查中发挥了重大作用。一名特工签署了对该庄园进行搜查的宣誓书。另一名特工在该案中对证人进行了面谈。
Most of the employees, who include agents, analysts and operations staff members, had significant experience in counterintelligence work related to Iran. Some played major roles in the investigation into Mr. Trump’s handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club and estate in Florida. One agent signed the affidavit for the search of the estate. Another conducted interviews with witnesses in that case.
诉讼表明，虽然总统及其助手一直急于解雇曾参与特朗普调查的特工，但他们在2月份被解雇的一个动因是帕特尔先生前往米兰观看美国男子冰球队在奥运会上比赛后所承受的审查。广泛流传的视频显示，帕特尔先生在球队赢得金牌后在男更衣室里大口喝啤酒，诉讼称这种行为“表现出极度的不成熟和缺乏个人控制”。联邦调查局未立即回应置评请求。
The lawsuit suggests that, while the president and his aides have always been eager to fire agents who worked on investigations of Mr. Trump, a motivating factor for their dismissals in February was the scrutiny Mr. Patel was under after going to Milan to watch the U.S. men’s hockey team at the Olympics. Video circulated widely showing Mr. Patel chugging a beer in the men’s locker room after the team won gold, behavior that the lawsuit calls “a display of wild immaturity and lack of personal control.”The F.B.I. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
该诉讼还指控帕特尔先生就员工被解雇一事向国会提供虚假回答，当时他声称这些解雇是内部调查的结果。
The lawsuit also accuses Mr. Patel of providing false answers to Congress about the employees’ dismissals when he claimed that they were the result of internal investigations.
“当这些解雇发生时，联邦调查局的职业人员会进行内部调查，强调不道德或不当行为，由我来做决定，”帕特尔先生三月份在众议院情报委员会作证时表示。
“When these terminations occur, there are internal investigations conducted by the careers at the F.B.I. that highlight unethical or inappropriate conduct, and it’s up to me to make the decision,” Mr. Patel testified in March before the House Intelligence Committee.
诉讼断言这一回答是虚假的。9名原告“被非法解雇，并非出于任何原因或任何正当理由，而纯粹是为了满足总统的个人恩怨，”其中写道。“解雇并未遵循联邦调查局内部的任何内部调查或纪纪律处分程序。”尽管帕特尔先生在听证会上断言这些员工“因违反其道德义务而被解雇”，但诉讼争辩称，这些解雇是特朗普政府违反公务员法以将执法基本职能政治化的更大模式的一部分。
The lawsuit asserts that answer was false. The nine plaintiffs “were unlawfully terminated not for any cause or any legitimate reason, but only to satisfy the president’s personal vendetta,” it says. “The firings did not follow any internal investigation or disciplinary process within the F.B.I.”While Mr. Patel asserted at the hearing that the employees “were terminated for violating their ethical obligations,” the suit contends the firings were part of a larger pattern by the Trump administration of violating civil service laws to politicize basic functions of law enforcement.
特朗普政府和总检察长托德·布兰奇辩称，总统具有固有权力，可以随时解雇任何行政分支员工，无需说明理由，也无需对员工的行为进行正式审查。该诉讼针对帕特尔先生、布兰奇先生、联邦调查局和司法部提起。
The Trump administration and Attorney General Todd Blanche have argued that the president has inherent authority to fire any executive branch employee at any time and does not need to say why or conduct a formal review of the employee’s conduct. The lawsuit was filed against Mr. Patel, Mr. Blanche, the F.B.I. and the Justice Department.
诉讼将该政策称为“现任政府的发明”，相当于“试图将所有联邦员工转化为政治任命人员，并将其继续雇用条件化为他们对特朗普总统的（感知到的）个人和政治忠诚”。在书面声明中，被解雇员工的律师表示，这些员工曾处理过大量重要案件，包括波士顿马拉松爆炸案、在宾夕法尼亚州巴特勒谋杀特朗普未遂案以及伊朗武器走贩运案。
It calls that policy “an invention of the current administration” that amounts to “an attempt to convert all federal employees into political appointees and condition their continued employment on their (perceived) personal and political loyalty to President Trump.”In a written statement, lawyers for the fired employees said the employees had worked on a host of important cases, including the Boston Marathon bombing, the attempted assassination of Mr. Trump in Butler, Pa., and Iranian weapons trafficking.
“作为对他们服务的回报，他们被解雇是因为他们履行了职责，一如既往地不带偏见或偏袒地遵循事实和法律，”他们的律师玛格丽特·多诺万、阿布·D·洛厄尔和丽贝卡·S·蒂尼奥表示。“这场诉讼将证明他们的非法解雇，并追究政府对这一公然攻击法治行为的责任。”诉讼指出，解雇发生在美国对伊朗发动战争前几天，伊朗是许多被解雇人员曾有经验进行调查的对手。
“In return for their service, they were fired because they did their jobs, as they always did, to follow the facts and law without bias or favor,” said their lawyers, Margaret Donovan, Abbe D. Lowell and Rebecca S. Tinio. “This lawsuit will prove their unlawful dismissal and hold the administration accountable for this blatant attack on the rule of law.”The lawsuit notes that the firings came just days before the United States entered into a war against Iran, an adversary that many of the fired personnel had experience investigating.
2025年中期，詹妮弗·培根担任联邦调查局高级官员时，曾向澳大利亚的安全官员作反情报报告。根据诉讼，事后帕特尔先生“感谢她做出色工作”。
In mid-2025, Jennifer Bacon was a senior F.B.I. official when she gave a counterintelligence presentation to security officials in Australia. Afterward, Mr. Patel “thanked her for her excellent work,” according to the lawsuit.
前行动专员哈里森·考夫曼在去年底参与调查2021年1月6日国会大厦袭击事件前被遗弃在民主党和共和党全国委员会总部外面的管状炸弹案后，得到了局长的祝贺。
Harrison Kaufman, a former staff operations specialist, was congratulated by the director late last year after he worked on the investigation into pipe bombs left outside the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican National Committees before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
诉讼称：“帕特尔局长亲自与考夫曼握手，并在执行逮捕和搜查令之前感谢他的工作。”
“Director Patel personally shook Kaufman’s hand and thanked him for his work before the arrest and search warrants were executed,” the lawsuit said.
杰里米·林顿曾在联邦调查局担任危机谈判专家。诉讼称，在2025年逮捕一名MS-13帮派嫌疑成员后，帕特尔先生“与林顿握手，与林顿和行动团队合影留亡，后来给林顿寄了一份签名的照片作为纪念”。德夫林·巴雷特为《时报》报道司法部和联邦调查局新闻。
Jeremy Linton worked at the F.B.I. as a crisis negotiator. After the 2025 arrest of a suspected member of the MS-13 gang, Mr. Patel “shook Linton’s hand, posed for a photograph with Linton and the operational team, and later sent Linton a signed copy of the photograph as a memento,” the lawsuit said. Devlin Barrett covers the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for The Times.