A federal judge in Manhattan ruled Monday that the Justice Department unlawfully fired Maurene Comey, the former federal prosecutor and daughter of ex-FBI Director James Comey, and ordered her retroactively reinstated with back pay. The department said it "disagrees with this decision and will appeal in due course."
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman's 55-page decision found that the July 2025 firing violated both the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 and the constitutional separation of powers, CBS News reported. He rejected the administration's argument that Article II of the Constitution gives the president unrestricted power to remove federal prosecutors.
Who she is and how she was fired
Comey joined the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan in 2015. Her cases included those against Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, Sean "Diddy" Combs and former Sen. Robert Menendez. The Justice Department acknowledged in court that she received "outstanding" performance ratings from 2019 through 2024, according to CBS.
She was "summarily fired via memo" from department headquarters, with no reason given, her lawsuit said. In May, the administration said then-Attorney General Pam Bondi had directed the removal and that her successor, Todd Blanche, ratified it. Comey's lawsuit alleged that she was fired because President Trump dislikes her father.
What the judge decided
The government's core argument was that prosecutors are an extension of the president's own power, so Congress cannot limit his ability to fire them. Furman rejected that view. He wrote that "Defendants invented a new and expansive theory of executive power," Al Jazeera reported, and called the position a "sweeping and unprecedented theory of executive authority," according to CBS. Accepting it, he wrote, would "unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation's constitutional system."
The department leaned in part on this summer's Supreme Court ruling that let the president fire the leaders of most independent agencies without cause, the decision behind the Court's handling of Gwynne Wilcox's NLRB firing. Furman was not persuaded. He held that the government was trying to "upend" long-settled case law allowing Congress to regulate the removal of inferior officers, the category that includes line prosecutors.
The ruling turned partly on a procedural point. Federal employees usually have to take firing disputes to the Merit Systems Protection Board. Because the government cited only Article II as the basis for the firing, Furman held in April that the case could stay in federal court, and he again denied the government's bid to send it to the board.
What she actually gets
The remedy is narrower than "reinstated" might suggest. The newsroom's breakdown:
Fired: July 16, 2025.
Took a new job: December 20, 2025.
Covered period: About 157 days, roughly five months.
Remedy: Retroactive reinstatement and back pay for that period.
Returns to the Justice Department?: No.
In effect, the order treats her as having stayed on the payroll until she chose to leave for a new job, rather than as having been fired.
The reactions
Comey's lawyers, Ellen Blain, Nicole Gueron, Deepa Vanamali and Margaret Donovan, called the decision a "hard-earned victory" for her and for all civil servants and said it "reaffirms our bedrock system of checks and balances: the President is not above the law." The Justice Department has not said when it will file its appeal, which would go to the Second Circuit.
The ruling came the same day the department unsealed a third criminal case against her father, this one under the Espionage Act. We break that filing down in James Comey charged a third time.
Two Taps News stories summarize reporting and the analysis discussed on Two Taps and Friends. They are not legal advice. Read our standards.
