A federal judge ruled Monday that the Department of Justice’s firing of New York federal prosecutor Maurene Comey last year was unlawful.
Judge Jesse Furman 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. The judge also ordered that she receive back pay from July 16 through December 20, 2025, when he inferred that Comey accepted another job, in the ruling in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
Maurene Comey, who had been involved with prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein, his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Sean “Diddy” Combs, was fired in July 2025. She later sued the Department of Justice, challenging its right to terminate her.
Her father has long been a target of criticism from President Donald Trump. James Comey, whom Trump fired as FBI director in 2017, 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 Court need not dwell long on Defendants’ second statutory argument justifying
Comey’s removal,” Furman said, referring to that claim. “That is because the argument borders on frivolous.”
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 centuries 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.
Comey’s lawyers, in a statement Monday, said, “This hard-earned victory belongs to Ms. Comey, to all civil servants, and to all fighting for the rule of law.”
“As the Court correctly held, to accept the government’s argument about unlimited executive power ‘would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation’s constitutional system,'” the lawyers said. “This decision reaffirms our bedrock system of checks and balances: the President is not above the law.”
The DOJ, in a statement, said, “The Department disagrees with this decision and will appeal in due course.”
That appeal would happen after Furman issues a final judgment in the case.
The judge did not rule on a claim by Comey that her First Amendment rights were violated by her firing, and gave her until Nov. 9 to file arguments on why that claim should not be dismissed as moot given his order in her favor on other grounds.
CNBC has requested comment on the ruling from the White House.
Comey, in a note to colleagues at the U.S. Attorney’s Office after she was fired, wrote, “If a career prosecutor can be fired without reason, fear may seep into the decisions of those who remain.”
“Fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought. Instead of fear, let this moment fuel the fire that already burns in the heart of this place,” she wrote. “A fire of righteous indignation at abuses of power. Of commitment to seek justice for victims.”