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A longtime FBI employee has filed a federal lawsuit claiming he was forced out of agent training after supervisors objected to an LGBTQ+ flag that had once flown outside an FBI field office and later appeared at his workstation.
Some sixteen years into his FBI career, David Maltinsky had moved from work as an intelligence specialist in the Los Angeles field office to the final stages of special agent instruction in Quantico, Virginia.
His complaint, lodged in federal court in Washington, said he had completed most of the academy’s nineteen-week program when officials summoned him to a meeting and delivered a dismissal letter signed by Director Kash Patel. The document cited an “inappropriate display of political signage.”
Maltinsky’s filing said the flag at issue was the “Progress Pride” design featuring rainbow stripes with a multicolored chevron representing people of color and the broader LGBTQ+ community.
The Los Angeles field office displayed that version of the flag in June 2021. According to the lawsuit, the banner was given to him after it was taken down and he later set it up at his workstation with support from supervisors.
Training dispute escalates
The lawsuit said he had moved to the FBI Academy in April and was nearing completion of the program when the firing occurred. His filing added that he had previously led diversity initiatives at the bureau. The complaint noted that President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January that ended all diversity, equity and inclusion programs across government.
The suit identifies Patel, the FBI, Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Justice Department as defendants. The FBI declined to comment. A request to the Justice Department for comment had not been returned when the lawsuit was filed.
Claims of constitutional violations
Maltinsky is asking the court to reinstate him and to declare that his firing violated his First Amendment free-speech protections and his Fifth Amendment equal-protection rights. His attorney, Christopher M. Mattei, called the decision an unlawful act targeting self-expression. “This case is about far more than one man’s career - it’s about whether the government can punish Americans simply for saying who they are,” he said.
Other challenges to internal personnel decisions have surfaced since the start of Trump’s second term. Some senior FBI officials alleged in a September lawsuit that their own departures resulted from a “campaign of retribution” driven by political pressure.
