Angelina Jolie may be trying to sue the FBI over the Brad Pitt plane incident involving their son -- but if it is her, she's proceeding anonymously ... having just gotten the green light to do it.

Jolie has been speculated as the person behind a recent Jane Doe lawsuit filed against the federal agency over a FOIA request -- one the feds have apparently denied this woman as it pertains to an investigation they undertook a few years back involving alleged abuse on a private jet ... this according to a new report from Politico.

This woman has apparently been asking the FBI to hand over documents from their investigation, but claims she's been getting the cold shoulder ... so, she's suing them over it -- but before she dives in on this case, she wanted her identity to remain under wraps.

A judge just signed off on that request this week ... so she'll move forward here as Jane Doe. The reason she says she wants to stay hidden -- the "impact on the privacy of her client's minor children," so says this woman's attorney ... big shot Amanda Kramer.

That seems to be another tell in some folks' eyes that Angie may be the mystery woman trying to dig up these docs. Based on all the info she's cited in docs thus far, obtained by TMZ, it would appear her description of the incident tracks with what happened in 2016.

You'll recall ... the family was flying from France to the U.S., when Angelina claims an argument broke out between Brad and their oldest boy, Maddox, which she alleges escalated into some sort of physical confrontation and resulted in Brad making contact with the kid.

Brad denied her characterization, saying the contact was inadvertent -- but the case was still investigated by Child Services and the authorities when they landed ... which eventually got kicked over to the FBI over jurisdiction. Since it happened in the air, it was their game.

In the end, the FBI closed the case and declined to file any charges ... as they felt there simply wasn't enough there to move forward. And yet, all these years later ... here's a Jane Doe wanting to get to the bottom of how exactly they reached a similar conclusion in what may be the same matter.

As for what this woman apparently wants with these records ... to "better understand the FBI's investigation and obtain information necessary for her children to receive medical care and trauma counseling." Her attorney also makes it sound like she wants to use these records in other DV advocacy work she might be involved in, politically or otherwise.