Five outside parties file legal briefs in support of agents Patel fired during broad agency purge

The FBI Agents Association and other groups filed briefs in support of three FBI employees who were fired last year as part of a broader personnel purge initiated by FBI Director Kash Patel. 

According to the Associated Press, which cited anonymous sources, the agents were targeted for investigating President Donald Trump or were perceived as being against the Trump administration's interests. 

The briefs argue that the firings were illegal because the agents were denied due process and punished for their political affiliations, the Associated Press reported. The terminations, the briefs argue, go against an understanding that the agents can work sensitive cases without putting their careers at risk. 

"The Bureau simply cannot function if individual Special Agents must choose whether to accept a lawful assignment that could later get them fired, or alternatively to reject it and become subject to firing for insubordination," the association wrote in its brief. 

The three agents — Michelle Ball, Jamie Garman and Blaire Toleman — argued in a federal lawsuit filed in March that their firings were part of a "retribution campaign" that targeted them for their work investigating Trump. The agents had "exemplary and unblemished" service records, but were fired without cause or opportunity to respond, the lawsuit argues.