A federal judge on Monday ruled that the Department of Justice (DOJ) unlawfully terminated Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, and must compensate her with back pay. The decision, issued by U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan, rejected the Trump administration's claim that it had constitutional authority to dismiss her without cause.
In a 55-page opinion, Judge Furman wrote that the government's argument "is contrary to an unbroken line of Supreme Court decisions dating back almost two centuries," adding that the high court has not formally overruled any of those precedents. He concluded that this alone was sufficient to reject the administration's position.
Maurene Comey, who was a criminal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, was informed in July that she was being removed from her post. She subsequently filed suit, alleging that her termination was politically motivated—a result of her perceived affiliation with her father, whom President Trump fired as FBI director in 2017, a move that led to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller to oversee the Russia investigation.
Judge Furman's ruling does not address the First Amendment claims raised by Comey, but instead focuses on statutory protections for assistant U.S. attorneys. The court determined that Congress had enacted specific restrictions on the removal of such prosecutors, and that the DOJ's action violated those provisions.
The DOJ had argued that these statutory limits were unconstitutional, pointing to recent Supreme Court decisions that invalidated similar protections for independent agency heads. However, Judge Furman distinguished those rulings, noting that they apply only to principal officers, not to inferior officers like Comey. "Defendants' contention that recent Supreme Court decisions have fatally undermined that precedent is not one that this Court, as a lower court, may accept," he wrote.
The judge also emphasized the broader constitutional balance, stating that accepting the government's argument "would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation's constitutional system."
Although Maurene Comey has since taken another job and will not return to the DOJ, the court's ruling retroactively reinstates her for the four-month period before she assumed her new role. It also orders the DOJ to provide back pay, restore pension benefits, and update her personnel file to reflect that she resigned rather than being fired.
The case has drawn attention amid ongoing legal battles involving the Trump administration and the Comey family. James Comey has become a vocal critic of the president, and the DOJ is currently prosecuting him for allegedly posting a violent threat against Trump—an image of seashells spelling "86 47." Separately, public confidence in federal institutions has declined, as recent polling indicates record-low trust in the government, a trend that may be exacerbated by such politically charged firings.
The DOJ has not yet commented on the ruling, but it may appeal the decision. Legal experts note that the judge's reliance on long-standing precedent could make the case a significant test of the limits of presidential removal power over federal prosecutors.
