A federal judge ruled Monday that the Justice Department unlawfully fired Maurene Comey, the veteran federal prosecutor and daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, dealing a sharp rebuke to the Trump administration's claims of near-limitless power to remove career officials, The Guardian and NPR reported.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman found that Comey, who spent about a decade as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan and worked on cases against Sean "Diddy" Combs, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, was illegally dismissed in July 2025 despite consistently strong praise from supervisors and colleagues. He wrote that the department had invented a new and expansive theory of executive power and violated her right to due process.
A rejected theory of power
The government had argued that because federal prosecutors exercise the president's powers, Comey could be fired at will and Congress had no authority to limit such removals. Furman disagreed, writing that the claim ran counter to nearly two centuries of Supreme Court precedent. "To accept Defendants' argument would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation's constitutional system," he wrote.
The judge ordered retroactive reinstatement and back pay from the date of her firing through Dec. 20, and NPR reported that Comey may return to the Southern District of New York if she chooses. The order is not final: Furman has not yet ruled on her First Amendment claim that she was fired over politically protected speech and plans further briefing on it. The Justice Department told NPR it disagrees with the decision and will appeal.
Comey's lawyers called the ruling a victory for civil servants and the rule of law, saying it confirms that the president is not above the law.
A pattern of political firings
Comey's lawsuit argued she was fired because of who her father is, a prominent Trump critic, or because of her perceived politics. Her dismissal was widely seen as personal: Trump fired James Comey as FBI director in May 2017 while the bureau was investigating ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 campaign, and has since repeatedly called for him to be jailed.
The Justice Department has twice indicted the elder Comey. A case accusing him of lying to Congress was thrown out after a judge found the prosecutor who brought it had been illegally appointed. A second, still pending, accuses him of threatening Trump with an Instagram photo of seashells arranged as "8647," a case some legal experts view skeptically.
The ruling lands as scores of career prosecutors and FBI agents who worked on investigations of the president, or were seen as opposed to his agenda, have been pushed out of the department, several of whom have filed their own lawsuits. For them, Furman's reasoning may matter as much as the outcome for Comey.
Reporting sources: US politics | The Guardian, “Maurene Comey was illegally fired as federal prosecutor, judge rules” · NPR Topics: Politics, “Judge says DOJ illegally fired the daughter of former FBI director Comey”.