A veteran FBI employee’s dream of becoming a Special Agent has been cut short. David Maltinsky, a 16-year veteran of the bureau, was fired just weeks before his graduation from the FBI Academy, allegedly for a rainbow Pride flag he had displayed at his desk years prior.
While some reports, including those from the New York Times, have brought this story to national attention, the events themselves span from the West Coast to the halls of Quantico, painting a picture of what some are calling a modern-day “Lavender Scare.”
David Maltinsky, 36, was not a new recruit. He had spent 16 years as an intelligence specialist in the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, where he worked on high-profile cybercrime and public corruption cases, including the 2014 North Korean cyberattack on Sony Pictures.
In 2025, Maltinsky was finally on the cusp of a major promotion. He had been accepted into the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, to train as a Special Agent, a longtime career goal. However, in October 2025, just three weeks shy of graduation, he was summoned to a meeting and summarily fired.
The reason? A termination letter signed by FBI Director Kash Patel cited “poor judgment with an inappropriate display of political signage” during his previous assignment. The “political signage” referred to was a Progress Pride flag.
According to a lawsuit Maltinsky filed this week in Washington, D.C., the flag wasn’t a rogue political statement. In 2021, the same flag had been officially flown outside the Wilshire Federal Building, home to the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, to celebrate Pride Month. When the month ended, supervisors gifted the flag to Maltinsky in recognition of his work on diversity initiatives.
Maltinsky displayed the flag at his L.A. desk for years with the explicit permission of his supervisors. It remained there without issue until he packed up his desk to leave for training in Virginia.
The timing of the complaint is key to Maltinsky’s lawsuit. He alleges that a colleague filed a complaint about the flag on January 20, 2025, the day of the presidential inauguration. Despite his supervisors initially assuring him the display was permissible, the climate shifted rapidly under the new agency leadership.
Maltinsky’s lawsuit against Director Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and the Department of Justice alleges violations of his First and Fifth Amendment rights. It argues that he is being retroactively punished for speech that was approved at the time, and that his firing is part of a broader “purge” of employees viewed as “woke” or politically undesirable by the new administration.
“We’re not the enemy, and we’re not some political mob,” Maltinsky told reporters. “We’re proud members of the FBI, and we have a mission to do.”
Maltinsky’s firing has reportedly created a “chilling effect” within the bureau. His lawsuit describes colleagues frantically scrubbing their desks of anything that could be construed as “political,” from Pride flags to personal photos, for fear of losing their livelihoods.
As the legal battle unfolds in D.C., the case of David Maltinsky is shaping up to be a critical test of federal employment rights and free speech in a shifting political landscape.
