Kash Patel Fired FBI Agent Overseeing Dozens of Iran Cases Just Three Days Before US Strikes, Suit Says

FBI Director Kash Patel signed the dismissal letter of Jeremy Linton, an agent overseeing dozens of Iran-related investigations, a new lawsuit alleges. Linton was fired on 25 February, three days before US strikes on Iran began.

The complaint, filed in Washington on Thursday, 15 October, says he was unable to hand over active cases or intelligence. He is among nine former FBI employees who allege they were dismissed for working on President Donald Trump's classified documents investigation.

Their lawsuit accuses the administration of political retaliation, allegations that have not been established in court.

The dismissals came on 25 and 26 February, before US and Israeli military strikes began on 28 February. Eight employees were fired on the first day and a ninth on the second. The plaintiffs argue that their earlier assignment to an FBI investigation known as Plasmic Echo cost them their jobs.

Kash Patel Dismissed Agent Handling Dozens of Iran Cases

Linton had served at the FBI for nearly a decade before his dismissal. Promoted to supervisory special agent in September 2025, he subsequently worked exclusively on Iranian counterintelligence, according to the 70-page federal complaint.

At the time of his termination, he managed several dozen investigations relating to threats from Iran. The plaintiffs say the sudden dismissal prevented him from transferring cases, pending operations or intelligence to colleagues. The complaint does not establish that the interruption caused a particular security failure during the subsequent strikes.

Linton was summoned to an office in Virginia on 25 February, where Assistant Director Don Holstead gave him a letter signed by Patel. According to the filing, Holstead said he did not know why Linton was being dismissed.

The departure contrasted with an earlier encounter between the two men. After Linton helped negotiate an operation involving the arrest of an MS-13 gang leader in Virginia in March 2025, Patel congratulated him. The lawsuit says the director posed for a photograph and later sent Linton a signed copy.

Kash Patel Faces Retaliation Claims Over Trump Documents Probe

The plaintiffs say their dismissals stemmed from work on Plasmic Echo, the FBI investigation into classified records retained at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. That investigation was later overseen by special counsel Jack Smith.

Linton had served as the affiant for the sworn application supporting the FBI's August 2022 search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, according to the complaint. Trump was indicted over the documents case in 2023, but a federal judge dismissed the charges in 2024 after finding Smith had been improperly appointed. The ruling did not decide the underlying allegations.

The complaint names Patel, the FBI, Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Justice Department as defendants. It alleges the firings were not preceded by internal disciplinary investigations and that employees received no advance notice, hearings or opportunities to appeal. Their lawyers say the dismissals were carried out 'only to satisfy the President's personal vendetta'.

The termination letters invoked 'Article II' of the US Constitution and accused the employees of poor judgement and a lack of impartiality, according to the plaintiffs. They deny the accusations and say their personnel records did not categorise the dismissals as being for cause.

During Senate Judiciary Committee testimony in September, Patel said the employees 'were terminated for weaponising the Federal Bureau of Investigation', according to the complaint. The plaintiffs dispute that explanation.

Kash Patel Firings Followed Access to Case Files

The complaint also examines what happened shortly before the dismissals. On 23 February, agent Miles Starr, described as a member of Patel's advisory team, requested access to Plasmic Echo files.

Counterintelligence section chief Jennifer Bacon granted access to all but one subfile, the complaint says. The records available to Starr contained the names of the nine plaintiffs. Bacon and seven colleagues were fired less than 48 hours later, with the ninth dismissed on 26 February.

The plaintiffs present that sequence as part of their retaliation case. It does not, by itself, establish why Patel authorised the dismissals. The complaint also questions whether criticism of Patel's Winter Olympics appearance influenced their timing, without establishing such a motive.

The former employees seek reinstatement, back pay and declarations that their constitutional rights were violated. Two plaintiffs, Bacon and Linton, additionally raise a separation-of-powers claim.

The court will have to assess the competing accounts of why these employees were dismissed and whether the procedures followed were lawful. The allegations of political retaliation have not been established in court.

Questions also remain about the consequences of Linton's interrupted handover. The filing describes investigations left without a transition, but does not identify an operational failure caused by his departure as US strikes on Iran began.