Judge Rules Trump Illegally Fired Maurene Comey, Epstein Prosecutor

A federal judge ruled Monday that the Justice Department unlawfully dismissed Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, from her position as a federal prosecutor in New York.

Comey was abruptly removed in July from her role as an assistant US attorney in the Southern District of New York, where she had worked for about 10 years and handled several of the department’s most closely watched prosecutions – including cases involving Jeffrey Epstein, Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs and former Senator Robert Menendez. 

She filed a lawsuit last year, claiming the dismissal violated ‘multiple provisions’ of the Civil Service Reform Act, which protects federal employees—including career prosecutors—as well as her rights under the First and Fifth Amendments of the US Constitution.

The judge overseeing the case largely sided with her. 

In a 55-page decision issued Monday, US District Judge Jesse M. Furman concluded that Comey’s firing ‘was not authorized by any statute,’ rejecting the Trump administration’s argument that the removal was lawful. 

Furman also found that the dismissal violated the Civil Service Reform Act, which places limits on the circumstances under which federal employees may be fired.

‘Indeed, to accept Defendants’ argument would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation’s constitutional system,’ Furman wrote.

The court ordered Comey to be reinstated retroactively and awarded her back pay from the date of her dismissal through December 20, 2025, when she took a private-sector position.

Whether Comey intends to return to the Justice Department remains unknown. 

Her attorneys called Monday’s decision a ‘hard-earned victory’ for Comey and other federal workers. In a statement, they said the ruling ‘reaffirms our bedrock system of checks and balances.’ 

The ruling temporarily concludes a months-long clash between the Trump administration and the prosecutor, who argued that her dismissal was the ‘direct result’ of Trump’s hostility toward her father, former FBI Director James Comey. Trump fired James Comey in 2017, years before his 10-year term was set to end.

In her complaint, the younger Comey’s attorneys maintained that there was ‘no plausible’ explanation for her termination unrelated to her family connection.

Furman appeared to reach a similar conclusion. He pointed out that Comey had been ‘assigned some of the country’s highest profile cases’ during nearly a decade at the Justice Department and had ‘consistently received the highest accolades from supervisors and peers alike.’ 

In a memo to colleagues last year, Comey wrote that the Justice Department had ‘summarily fired via memo’ her. 

She said the notice provided no explanation and left it uncertain who had ordered her removal. 

Trump administration officials later said the decision to remove her from the US attorney’s office was ‘directed’ by former Attorney General Pam Bondi and ‘ratified’ by Todd Blanche, who became acting attorney general in April. 

When she filed the lawsuit, Comey said Trump had posted or re-posted more than 250 times about her father, including messages that ‘repeatedly’ called him the ‘worst’ FBI director in history. 

Since the start of Trump’s second term, the Justice Department has brought two separate criminal cases against James Comey – the first, for allegedly making false statements to Congress, and the second, for allegedly threatening Trump by way of an Instagram photo of seashells, arranged to depict the numbers ’86 47.’

The first case was ordered dismissed by a federal judge last year, and Comey has pleaded not guilty in the second case – describing both efforts as the result of ‘vindictive’ and selective prosecutions.  

This is a developing news story and will be updated.