FBI Employee Fired After Displaying a Pride Flag in Work Space

On November 19, 2025, a 16-year Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) staff operations specialist sued the Bureau after being fired. The complaint alleges that he was fired for having displayed at his workstation an LGBTQ+ flag. (The flag had previously flown on a flagpole of the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles in June 2021. It was then given to the employee and he displayed it with the approval of his supervisors.) The complaint quotes FBI Director Kash Patel's termination letter, citing "Article II of the United States Constitution" and concluding that Maltinsky "exercised poor judgment with an inappropriate display of political signage" in his work area. The complaint also notes that the FBI routinely permits employees to display other politically resonant imagery — including the Thin Blue Line flag, the Gadsden flag, and Punisher iconography — at their workstations. Earlier reporting by the Associated Press first described the firing.