David Maltinsky served the FBI for 16 years and received awards for supporting equality.
On October 1, 2025, three weeks before he was expected to graduate from the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, he was fired over a Pride flag the bureau had given him. His lawsuit is now fighting to reach discovery.
David Maltinsky is asking a federal judge to allow him to obtain internal FBI records and testimony regarding the decision to end his 16-year career. https://t.co/9tKqCq6Ysk
— The Advocate (@TheAdvocateMag) July 16, 2026
From The Advocate:
Maltinsky had worked for the bureau for more than 16 years and completed 16 weeks of its 19-week special agent training program.
Patel’s termination letter said Maltinsky had exercised “poor judgment” by displaying “political signage” at his former workstation in the FBI’s Los Angeles field office.
The signage was a Progress Pride flag.
According to Maltinsky’s lawsuit, the FBI had previously flown the flag outside the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles and later entrusted it to him in recognition of his work supporting LGBTQ+ employees. He displayed it with a small placard describing its history.
When another employee complained about the flag in early 2 025, Maltinsky’s supervisor told him the display was “entirely permissible and appropriate,” according to the complaint.
The field office’s chief legal counsel separately determined that the display violated no FBI policy, rule or regulation.
The FBI has tried to say just because the “signage” in question was a Pride flag doesn’t mean Maltinsky was fired for being gay. His lawyers clapped back at that.
“When an employer fires a Jew for wearing a Star of David necklace, or a person of French origin for displaying the tricolor flag, the act betrays hostility toward the employee’s protected characteristic,” they wrote. “So too, when Defendants targeted Maltinsky for displaying a pride flag.”
Read more here.
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
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