A longtime FBI employee who says he was fired last month for hanging an LGBTQ+ Pride flag at his workspace has filed a lawsuit in federal court.
David Maltinsky, a decorated intelligence specialist, spent 16 years working in the Los Angeles Field Office and had completed nearly four months of special agent training when he received a letter signed by FBI Director Kash Patel telling him he had been “summarily dismissed” from the agency for the “inappropriate display of political signage” at his workspace.
Maltinsky’s lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that Patel unlawfully terminated Maltinsky and violated his rights to free speech and equal protection under the law. The suit, first reported by CBS News, also names Attorney General Pam Bondi, the FBI and the Department of Justice as defendants.
Maltinsky said in the suit that he had displayed a Pride flag at his Los Angeles office workspace since 2021 after a special agent had given him several flags in recognition of his work with the FBI’s diversity initiatives.
In June 2021, FBI headquarters had authorized federal buildings across the country to fly Pride flags beneath the American flag in recognition of LGBTQ+ Pride Month. The Los Angeles office had flown both a traditional rainbow Pride flag and a “Progress Pride” flag, which includes black, brown, pink, blue and white colors to represent people of color and trans people.
