News/Commentary

FBI employee fired over ‘Pride’ flag pours it out for CBS News

November 20, 2025 | | Print Article

A fired FBI employee who was terminated for displaying political signage at his workstation has since predictably taken to crying to the media and claiming he was targeted for being openly gay.

According to CNN, FBI Director Kash Patel fired employee David Maltinsky last month for having “displayed a Pride flag in his workspace during a past assignment.”

“In notifying [Maltinsky of his] dismissal, Patel did not specifically mention the Pride flag by name, but said the [he] was being summarily dismissed for past ‘poor judgment’ and ‘an inappropriate display of political signage,'” CNN reported, citing sources.

It makes sense given the Trump administration’s targeting of “woke” ideology in the government and military.

Yet here was Maltinsky speculating to CBS News this week that he was targeted because he was probably on some gay “list”:

“There was fear after the administration came in that they were going to start looking at all of our personnel files, where some of us did self-identify our sexual orientation, some people did identify as trans,” the former FBI employee said in the clip above.

ADVERTISEMENT

“So there was fear early on that DOGE was going to collect this and they were going to curate a list and get rid of ‘the undesirables,'” he added.

His remarks to CBS News and the network’s reaction both prompted criticism from social media users.

One critic pointed out that the administration is brimming with openly gay officials:

Others wondered why Maltinsky felt the need to advertise his sexual proclivities to his workplace colleagues (*Graphic language):

ADVERTISEMENT

As noted by CBS News, Maltinsky has since sued the FBI.

The suit says that while he was working as an intelligence specialist in the FBI’s Los Angeles field office in June of 2021, when the Biden administration was in power, his superiors decided to display a “Progress Pride” flag.

After the flag was eventually removed, it was gifted to Maltinsky, who then chose to display it at his workstation with the support of his superiors, according to the suit.

ADVERTISEMENT

CNN notes that this past April, he started training at the FBI Academy to become a special agent. He’d completed 16 of 19 weeks of training at the time he was finally fired.

Some critics have asked why it took him so many years of working at the FBI — he’d reportedly been at the agency 16 years before he was fired — to finally pursue a position as an agent.

Maltinsky, for his part, has doubled, tripled, and quadrupled down on the narrative he’s trying to sell.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Clearly this was not about who I am, but what I am and what I represent,” he told the New York Times. “It’s about trying to stoke fear in the workplace — especially in the queer community at the F.B.I. — that has nothing to do with protecting the American people.”

Vivek Saxena
Latest posts by Vivek Saxena (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles