Former FBI Staffer Sues Over Firing For Pride Flag

A 16-year FBI employee has filed a lawsuit alleging he was fired last month because he had a Pride flag draped near his desk.

David Maltinsky, who was weeks away from being elevated to the position of agent, claims he was fired unconstitutionally and retroactively, punishing him for displaying a Pride flag at his Los Angeles workstation years earlier, a flag the FBI itself once flew and later gave him to keep.

David Maltinsky says he was illegally terminated in October for displaying a Progress Pride flag at his desk during the Biden administration. https://t.co/1zlnu27h5Y

— The Advocate (@TheAdvocateMag) November 19, 2025

Via the New York Times:

David Maltinsky, an F.B.I. agent-in-training, had only a dim suspicion of what was going on when he was suddenly pulled from his classmates one evening last month and called to a meeting with top officials at the academy, where he was only three weeks away from graduation.

A gay man who had previously worked as a civilian cybertech assistant in the Los Angeles field office, Mr. Maltinsky knew that the meeting might have something to do with his sexual identity — or with his wide-ranging efforts at the bureau to promote L.G.B.T.Q. issues.

What he did not expect was the letter he was handed when he arrived at the F.B.I. Academy’s front office.

It was signed by the bureau’s director, Kash Patel, he said, and announced that he was being “summarily dismissed” from the academy because of “political signage” he had once displayed at his work space in Los Angeles.

The only thing that could be, he quickly realized, was a rainbow pride flag that had hung near his desk for years and had been given to him as a gift by his former bosses.

The flag in question was presented to Maltinsky by the assistant special agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI field office in 2021. The flag had flown for the entire previous month outside the office on the grounds of the Wilshire Federal Building.

The flag was displayed on the wall of Maltinsky’s work space along for nearly four years – alongside other personal trinkets including a Darth Vader coffee mug and figurines of characters from the TV show “Stranger Things.”

The lawsuit, filed today, asks the court to reinstate Maltinsky, award back pay, and rule that the government cannot punish employees for LGBTQ+ identity or expression.

Watch the interview with Maltinsky from CBS News:

CBS NEWS EXCLUSIVE: David Maltinsky, a 16-year FBI employee who was weeks away from being elevated to the position of agent, filed a lawsuit alleging he was fired because he had a Pride flag draped near his desk. “I knew I was on a list,” he told CBS News’ @MacFarlaneNews. “There… pic.twitter.com/v5v93ca1cM

— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 19, 2025