FBI employees who were fired for their roles in the investigation of President Donald Trump's keeping of classified documents at his Florida estate filed a lawsuit on Thursday, seeking to get their jobs back. 

The lawsuit alleges that their firings were unlawful acts of "political retribution," the Associated Press reported. 

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Washington on behalf of nine agents, intelligence analysts and staff operations specialists, all of whom were fired in February. Their terminations followed earlier firings of agents who worked on the investigation into Trump's efforts to uncover election fraud that he claims led to Democrat Joe Biden winning the 2020 presidential election. 

FBI Director Kash Patel said in congressional testimony that the employees he fired had "weaponized" the FBI, but the lawsuit denies that claim, citing a combined century of distinguished and apolitical FBI service, including the investigation into the 2024 assassination attempt of Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. 

“This lawsuit will prove their unlawful dismissal and hold the administration accountable for this blatant attack on the rule of law,” said a statement from the plaintiffs' attorneys, Margaret Donovan, Abbe Lowell and Rebecca Tinio.