Judge Jesse Furman rejected the administration’s claim of unrestricted power to fire federal prosecutors
A federal judge ruled Monday that the Justice Department unlawfully fired Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, from her job as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan, rejecting the Trump administration’s claim that the president can remove such prosecutors at will, CBS News reported.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman retroactively reinstated Comey and ordered back pay covering the period from her July 2025 firing through Dec. 20, 2025, when she accepted a different job, according to CBS News and the Associated Press.
Judge Finds Firing Broke Federal Law
In a 55-page decision, Furman found that Comey’s removal violated the constitutional separation of powers and federal law, CBS News reported. That included the Civil Service Reform Act, a 1978 law that provides protections for federal workers.
The judge also found that the firing violated the Administrative Procedure Act and Comey’s Fifth Amendment due process and statutory rights, AP reported.
The administration had argued that Article II of the Constitution gives the president unrestricted removal power, and that Congress could not limit the removal of federal prosecutors.
Furman wrote that the claim that Congress is barred from regulating such removals “flies in the face of nearly two centuries of Supreme Court precedent,” according to AP.
“Indeed, to accept Defendants’ argument would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation’s constitutional system,” he wrote.
He called the department’s position a “sweeping and unprecedented theory of executive authority,” CBS News reported.
Back Pay, but No Return to Prosecuting
The reinstatement and back pay are meant to “make her whole,” the judge wrote, and to ensure she does not suffer adverse employment consequences from the firing, AP reported.
Comey is now in private practice and no longer seeks to actually return to her old post, according to AP.
Furman reserved judgment on her First Amendment claim until both sides submit further arguments. He said he was inclined to dismiss that claim as largely moot.
A Test of Presidential Firing Power
Comey’s lawsuit was one of several filed by former government employees who were fired without cause, cases that have tested the limits of the president’s power to fire federal officials, CBS News reported.
In defending her firing, the administration relied in part on the Supreme Court’s June decision allowing the president to fire members of certain independent agencies without cause. That decision overturned a precedent more than 90 years old, according to CBS News.
How Maurene Comey Lost Her Job
Comey had served as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan since 2015. She handled cases against Sean Combs, Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and former Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, CBS News reported.
Two weeks before she was fired, a jury convicted Combs of prostitution-related charges in a prosecution she led, AP reported in December 2025.
In court filings, the Justice Department admitted that Comey received outstanding ratings on her performance reviews from 2019 through 2024, according to CBS News. In an earlier ruling, Furman wrote that she “was, by all accounts, an exemplary Assistant United States Attorney,” AP reported.
According to her lawsuit, the U.S. attorney’s office asked her to lead a major public corruption case the day before she was fired, Fox News reported.
The termination letter gave no reason. It read: “Pursuant to Article II of the United States Constitution and the laws of the United States, your employment with the Department of Justice is hereby terminated, and you are removed from federal service effective immediately.”
In a letter to colleagues, Comey said she had been “summarily fired via memo,” CBS News reported.
When she pressed U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for an explanation, he told her, “All I can say is it came from Washington. I can’t tell you anything else,” the lawsuit alleges, according to Fox News.
In a farewell email, Comey wrote, “If a career prosecutor can be fired without reason, fear may seep into the decisions of those who remain.” She added, “Do not let that happen.”
In May, the administration said then-Attorney General Pam Bondi directed her removal, and that her successor, Todd Blanche, ratified it, CBS News reported.
The Lawsuit’s Path Through Court
Comey sued on Sept. 15, 2025, in federal court in Manhattan, according to a case summary from the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse. She named the Justice Department, the Executive Office of the President and the Office of Personnel Management, among other defendants.
Her suit alleged that she was fired solely or substantially because her father is James Comey, or because of her perceived political affiliation and beliefs.
The Justice Department argued that her claims belonged before the Merit Systems Protection Board, which hears federal employees’ appeals of adverse actions.
On April 28, 2026, Furman rejected that argument and kept the case in federal court. Because the firing rested on Article II rather than a civil service law, he found, the court had jurisdiction to hear it.
At the time, attorneys Ellen Blain and Nicole Gueron said, “No president can ignore the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and federal law to fire a career federal employee based solely on her last name.”
A Long Feud Between Trump and James Comey
Trump fired James Comey as director of the FBI in May 2017, as the bureau was investigating ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign, AP reported.
James Comey was indicted in late September 2025 on charges of making a false statement and obstructing Congress. On Nov. 24, 2025, U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie dismissed the case, finding that prosecutor Lindsey Halligan had been illegally appointed, AP reported.
A separate indictment, returned on April 28, 2026, the same day as Furman’s earlier ruling, charges him with threatening Trump through an Instagram photo of seashells arranged to read 86 47. He has sought to have that case dismissed and has denied wrongdoing.
Comey’s Lawyers Respond
Comey’s lawyers, Ellen Blain, Nicole Gueron, Deepa Vanamali and Margaret Donovan, praised Monday’s ruling in a statement.
“This hard-earned victory belongs to Ms. Comey, to all civil servants, and to all fighting for the rule of law,” they said.
“This decision reaffirms our bedrock system of checks and balances: the President is not above the law.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, AP reported.
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