A long-serving FBI analyst has brought legal action alleging his let go because of displaying a rainbow symbol at his desk area.
Based on David Maltinsky, who served in the agency over a decade and a half, the firing earlier this year was “illegal and discriminatory”.
The complaint states that the bureau breached Maltinsky’s First Amendment rights and took retaliatory measures toward him due to participating in legally safeguarded speech.
Maltinsky is seeking a court order to reinstate his job with the FBI.
The comprehensive lawsuit, submitted in a Washington court for the District of Columbia, alleges that the plaintiff was dismissed from his training last month for earlier exhibiting the Pride symbol on his desk.
According to the filing, the LGBTQ+ banner was awarded to the plaintiff to acknowledge his efforts to promote the FBI’s diversity initiatives.
Early on, my goal was to serve the nation and protect public safety together with the skilled and devoted men and women at the agency,” said Maltinsky.
He continued, I exhibited that banner – that previously flew in front of a federal building – not to make a political point, but as a representation of diversity, togetherness and fair treatment.
These principles that previously strengthened a robust FBI. Today it has become where individuals such as myself are targeted. I think I was dismissed not because of my person, but what I am: a homosexual man,” he said.
In the past months, Maltinsky was accepted into the FBI special agent training academy at the FBI facility, up until what he described as “sudden termination shortly before completion”.
The lawsuit also claims that at some point following the 2017 inauguration, an colleague raised an alleged concern to his manager concerning the presence of the rainbow banner.
To be safe, Maltinsky asked that the Chief Division Counsel for the local bureau assess whether or not the exhibition of the symbol was permissible,” the complaint stated.
The document continued, “The Chief Division Counsel told the employee that showing of the flag complied with the agency’s standards.”
However, on 1 October, Maltinsky received notice of his dismissal.
In a letter cited in the lawsuit, bureau chief the official commented, I decided that you demonstrated poor judgment with the presence of a partisan emblem in your work area while previously assigned in Los Angeles.
In accordance with the Constitution of the United States Constitution, and regulations of the United States, your position with the FBI is hereby terminated.”
In comments released recently, his legal representative the attorney remarked, The government’s unlawfully firing him is part of a larger campaign to purge government departments of workers who may have different viewpoints, or are from minority populations, or individuals that speak out against prejudice.
“David’s fight is not just about him, but about securing the rights and freedoms of all federal employees.”
The bureau did not provide a statement regarding the case.
The case follows a separate case lodged recently by previous high-level bureau employees who said they’d been improperly dismissed.
They stated that the official stated he had been instructed by the White House to terminate any agent participating in an investigation concerning Donald Trump.
Additionally, the agency terminated an experienced official recently subsequent to the director was said to be angered due to accounts that the bureau chief used a federal plane to be present at a sports event at which his companion rendered the national anthem.
The official, a bureau veteran for over two decades, was removed as head of the agency’s response team, which manages major security threats and the agency’s jet fleet.
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