A federal judge ruled the DOJ unlawfully fired prosecutor Maurene Comey. The department disagrees and plans to appeal.
A federal judge in New York ruled Monday that the Justice Department unlawfully fired Maurene Comey, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan and the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey. He ordered her retroactively reinstated with back pay.
District Judge Jesse Furman said her July 2025 firing was not authorized by any statute and violated civil service protection laws, the separation of powers and her Fifth Amendment right to due process. He rejected the department’s position that the attorney general at the time, Pam Bondi, had unchecked power to fire a federal prosecutor without cause. The Justice Department conceded that neither misconduct nor her job performance was the reason for her dismissal, CNN reported. Furman wrote that the department invented a new and expansive theory of executive power. The judge ordered back pay from the date of her firing through Dec. 20, 2025, when he inferred that she accepted another job. He has not yet ruled on her First Amendment claim and will hear further briefing on it.
Maurene Comey served as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York from 2015 and worked on cases against Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Sean “Diddy” Combs. She was fired by memo with no reason given. She sued in September, arguing she was likely fired because Trump dislikes her father. A Justice Department spokesperson said the department disagrees with the decision and will appeal in due course. The appeal cannot come until the judge enters a final judgment ending the litigation.
The ruling came the same day the Justice Department’s third case against James Comey was unsealed.
Information for this report was provided by NPR, CBS News, CNBC, CNN, Forbes and Quartz.