A judge ruled Monday that Maurene Comey was wrongfully terminated from her position as the former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, ordering the Justice Department to reinstate her with backpay.
Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, was fired in July 2025. The DOJ did not provide a rationale for her ousting at the time, simply citing Donald Trump’s authority to do so as the sole justification.
In a federal lawsuit, Comey argued that her firing was part of the president’s political retribution campaign against her father, who testified before Congress during Trump’s first term regarding the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
In a 55-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman declared that Comey’s termination was not only unfounded, but it was also illegal as it fundamentally violated the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978.
The government’s other defense, which cited Article II of the Constitution barring Congress from regulating the removal of assistant U.S. attorneys, was similarly fraught, as it “flies in the face of nearly two centuries of Supreme Court precedent,” according to Furman.
“Indeed, to accept Defendants’ argument would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation’s constitutional system,” Furman wrote.
This is a developing story.