Daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, Maurene Comey, leaves the Albert V. Bryan United States Courthouse on Nov. 13, 2025 in Alexandria, Virginia.
Alex Wong | Getty Images
A federal judge on Monday said that the Department of Justice's firing of New York federal prosecutor Maurene Comey last year was unlawful.
Judge Jesse Furman also ordered that Comey, who is the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, be retroactively reinstated to her job as an assistant United States attorney in the Southern District of New York.
Maurene Comey, who had been involved with prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, was fired in July 2025.
Her father has long been a target of criticism from President Donald Trump. James Comey currently is being prosecuted for allegedly threatening Trump's life by posting on Instagram a photo of seashells forming the number "86 47;" his attorneys are seeking to have that case tossed out.
Furman, in his ruling for Maurene Comey in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, rejected the DOJ's arguments that then-Attorney General Pam Bondi could remove a federal prosecutor "at will" and without cause, and that current AG Todd Blanche could ratify that act after the fact.
Furman also rejected the DOJ's argument that even if the Civil Service Reform Act requires removal of a prosecutor for cause, an attorney general's firing of her constituted an implicit determination that she was removed "for such cause as will promote the efficiency of the service."
The judge said the DOJ all but admitted that its argument that the attorney general had power to fire Comey under Article II of the Constitution sought "to overturn nearly two decades of Supreme Court precedent."
"This Court, however, is bound to follow the Supreme Court's precedents unless and until the Supreme Court overturns them," Furman wrote.
CNBC has requested comment on the ruling from the DOJ, Comey's lawyers and the White House.
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