Robert Mercer, one of President Trump's biggest donors, is being sued by a former employee who alleges he was fired for calling Mercer a racist and criticizing his support for Trump.

David Magerman filed a lawsuit in Philadelphia on Monday that claims he was wrongfully terminated in late April after his relationship with Mercer and his family became irreparable.





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Mercer, 70, is co-CEO of Renaissance Technologies, an investment management firm. Magerman was a research scientist at the firm who helped design algorithms and worked there for two decades before his firing in April.

According to Bloomberg, the fight between the two men began in January when Magerman asked to talk to Mercer about his support for Trump.

During that conversation, Magerman said Mercer told him the country started going in the wrong direction “after the passage of the Civil Rights Act” in the 1960s. Magerman also alleges that Mercer said black Americans are the “only racist people remaining in the U.S.,” according to the complaint.

Magerman’s lawyer claims his client pushed back by noting the segregation of the country at the time, and that Mercer responded by saying the issue wasn’t important.

Magerman also criticized Mercer’s support for Trump in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. He says he had been told by the hedge fund’s chief compliance officer that what he intended to say would be permissible.

A day later, Magerman was suspended without pay.

Bloomberg reports that Magerman said he designed mathematical and statistical algorithms to direct Renaissance’s investment decisions on international financial markets, resulting in billions of dollars in revenue for the hedge fund.

Mercer invested a reported $10 million in Breitbart News in 2011, was the “third-biggest donor to conservative outside-spending groups” during the 2016 campaign, according to Financial Review.