A federal judge ruled on Monday that the Justice Department unlawfully fired Maurene Comey, a longtime prosecutor in the Southern District of New York and the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey.
In a 55-page decision, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman concluded that the removal violated both the constitutional separation of powers and federal law. He retroactively reinstated Comey as a federal prosecutor and ordered the Trump administration to pay her back pay through Dec. 20, the date she accepted a different job.
The government had argued that Article II of the Constitution gives the president unrestricted power to remove officials, and that Congress cannot limit the firing of federal prosecutors. Furman disagreed, finding that the dismissal ran afoul of the Civil Service Reform Act, a 1978 law that protects federal workers. He wrote that the administration was trying to "upend" long-settled case law that lets Congress regulate the removal of so-called inferior officers. Accepting the government's position, he said, "would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation's constitutional system." He described the Justice Department's argument as a "sweeping and unprecedented theory of executive authority."
Comey's lawyers, Ellen Blain, Nicole Gueron, Deepa Vanamali and Margaret Donovan, called the ruling a "hard-earned victory" for her and for all civil servants. They said it reaffirms the country's system of checks and balances and that "the President is not above the law." A Justice Department spokesperson said the department "disagrees with this decision and will appeal in due course."
Comey worked as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan from 2015 and handled prominent cases against Sean "Diddy" Combs, Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and former Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez. In a letter to former colleagues when she was dismissed, she said she was "summarily fired via memo" from Justice Department headquarters in Washington and was given no reason.
The termination notice cited Article II of the Constitution and said her employment was ended and she was removed from federal service effective immediately. It was initially unclear who made the decision. In May, the administration said then-Attorney General Pam Bondi "directed" the removal and that her successor, Todd Blanche, "ratified" it.
Comey sued over the firing last year, alleging she was likely let go because President Trump dislikes her father, who has been indicted twice during the second Trump administration. Her suit was among several brought by former government employees who were fired without cause.
The administration tried to have the case dismissed, arguing she had to take her claims to the Merit Systems Protection Board, which hears appeals from federal employees over adverse actions. The court denied that motion and let the case proceed. Furman found that because the firing rested on Article II rather than a civil service statute, the federal court had jurisdiction.
In court filings, the Justice Department acknowledged that Comey received "outstanding" performance ratings from 2019 through 2024. It said the firing was carried out under authority Congress gave the attorney general to remove assistant U.S. attorneys. The administration also leaned in part on the Supreme Court's June decision on removing members of certain independent agencies without cause, which overturned a precedent more than 90 years old. Furman was not persuaded that it supported the government's position here.
