A federal judge in Manhattan determined Monday that the U.S. Department of Justice unlawfully terminated Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, from her position as a federal prosecutor in New York in July 2025. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman ordered her retroactive reinstatement and back pay through Dec. 20, 2025, when she left for a position in private practice.
In a 55-page decision, Furman determined that the Trump administration’s decision to fire the career civil servant violated statutory protections established under the landmark Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, as well as constitutional separation-of-powers principles. The ruling rejected the government’s argument that the president has broad authority to dismiss federal prosecutors without restrictions imposed by Congress.
Comey, the former chief of the Violent and Organized Crime Unit in the Southern District of New York who helped lead prominent prosecutions against Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell and Sean “Diddy” Combs, spent nearly 10 years in the U.S. attorney’s office. She was notified of her dismissal by email on July 16, 2025, without an explanation beyond a reference to the president’s constitutional authority.
In her lawsuit, Comey argued that she was targeted because of her father’s longstanding conflict with President Donald Trump or her perceived political views. James Comey, whom Trump dismissed as FBI director in 2017, has remained a prominent critic of the president. The judge did not make a definitive finding that political retaliation motivated the firing, and he deferred a final decision on her First Amendment claim.
The Department of Justice asserted that executive authority under Article II of the Constitution gave leadership absolute discretion to dismiss line prosecutors, noting that former Attorney General Pam Bondi directed her removal and successor Todd Blanche later ratified it. Rejecting that executive power defense, Judge Furman wrote that the administration’s actions violated federal law enacted by Congress to shield non-political civil service workers from arbitrary or politically motivated dismissals.
The court ordered retroactive reinstatement and back pay spanning from Comey’s July dismissal through Dec. 20, the date she formally accepted employment elsewhere. Responding to the federal court directive, a Justice Department representative publicly stated that the agency “disagrees with this decision and will appeal in due course.”
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