A federal judge in Manhattan ruled on Monday, October 26, that the abrupt firing of Maurene Comey as a federal prosecutor by President Donald Trump's administration was unlawful. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman sided with Comey in her lawsuit against the Justice Department, in a case widely seen as a test of whether the administration can swiftly fire career prosecutors who were not politically appointed.
Source: Reuters, via Q101.9 FM
Comey, the eldest daughter of former FBI director and longtime Trump adversary James Comey, had served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York since 2015. She brought criminal cases against Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell and music mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs, and the court noted her annual performance assessments from 2019 through 2024 were rated outstanding. She was fired on July 16, 2025, with no advance notice or explanation; the dismissal memorandum cited Article II of the Constitution but gave no specific grounds.
Source: Reuters, via Q101.9 FM
In her lawsuit, Comey alleged she was fired because of who her father was, in violation of federal laws prohibiting the firing of civil servants for political reasons and guaranteeing federal employees due process. The Justice Department argued that prosecutors like Comey can be removed without cause by the president or the attorney general because they exercise a high degree of executive authority in court.
Furman rejected that argument. He held that the attorney general's statutory authority to remove assistant U.S. attorneys remains subject to the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, under which covered federal employees may be removed only for cause and with procedural protections, and that centuries of precedent affirm Congress's authority to place limits on the executive branch's ability to remove so-called 'inferior officers.' 'To accept defendants' argument would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this nation's constitutional system,' Furman wrote in the 55-page opinion in Comey v. United States Department of Justice, case No. 25-cv-7625.
Source: Court ruling summary, Bars Across
The judge granted Comey retroactive reinstatement and back pay from her July 16, 2025 termination through December 20, 2025. The order does not return her to the job now: the court record says she has another position and no longer seeks actual reinstatement. Comey's lawyers welcomed the ruling, saying: 'This decision reaffirms our bedrock system of checks and balances.' The Justice Department has said it disagrees with the ruling and intends to appeal, according to reporting on the decision.
Source: Court ruling summary, Bars Across
The ruling lands while Comey's father faces a separate, third federal case brought by the Trump Justice Department accusing him of violating the Espionage Act — a case Awaaz Punjab reported earlier on Monday. Monday's decision itself, however, was about the limits Congress can place on removing career prosecutors, not about the merits of any prosecution.