Thursday 10/29 the news broke that executive producer of Quanitco, Mark Gordon, is being sued for stealing the idea for the show from a CNN documentary. Paula Paizes and Barbara Leibovitz Hellman and Jamie Hellman, creators of the documentary in question, Quantico: The Making of an FBI Agent, are the ones bringing the lawsuit. Paizes had previously worked for Gordon and brought him a movie idea about Quantico, which his company optioned, agreed for a producer credit, and to receive profits from the movie.

The documentary that Paizes ended up creating gave her exclusive access to the actual FBI training center, with personal stories from trainees. Paizes 2 years later in 2003 went back to Gordon to create that movie she always wanted, but Gordon and his company gave her no answer.

Voilà! 2014 comes along and ABC orders Quantico with the Mark Gordon Company producing. Paizes lawsuit says, “”the detailed knowledge of training techniques, lifestyle and terminology used in Quantico could only have derived from the transcripts and notes obtained by Leibovitz and Hellman during their unprecedented access to FBI recruits for the Documentary, copies of which were retained by [Gordon].” Gordon’s company has declined to comment and ABC has not released a statement yet.