A Virginia woman who lost her job after a photo of her flipping off President Trump's motorcade went viral last year is suing her former employer.

Juli Briskman filed her lawsuit in Fairfax County Circuit Court on Wednesday, alleging her free speech was violated when she was forced to resign as a marketing analyst at Akima over the photograph. She is suing for wrongful termination and breach of contract.

"[Briskman] chose in her private time and in her capacity as a private citizen to express her disapproval of President Trump by extending her middle finger," her lawyers wrote in their complaint. "Although many will disagree with plaintiff’s message and her means of expressing it, there can be no doubt that such speech is at the very core of the First Amendment and the Virginia Constitution."

Briskman was riding her bicycle in Sterling, Virginia, on Oct. 28 when Trump passed her in his convoy after leaving his country club.



Getty photographer Brendan Smialowski, who was traveling with the White House press corps along with the convoy, snapped the now-iconic photograph.

"I don't employ that gesture very often but I wanted to express my opinion, and I was faced with tinted, bullet-proof glass, and I was assuming the person in the car was who I thought it was," Briskman told BuzzFeed News. She said she was upset at the time over the president's decision to end the DACA program and his response to the hurricane in Puerto Rico.