A New York federal judge ruled Monday that the Justice Department unlawfully fired former prosecutor Maurene Comey, who is the daughter of ex-FBI Director James Comey.
Maurene Comey served as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan for around a decade, working on high-profile cases against defendants like Sean "Diddy" Combs, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. The Trump Justice Department fired her in July 2025 despite her consistently receiving accolades from the department for her work.
In response, she sued the Justice Department and others, arguing that her dismissal was unlawful and unconstitutional. Her lawsuit said she was fired because her father is the former FBI director, a prominent critic of President Trump.
The Justice Department has twice indicted the elder Comey. The first case was dismissed. The second prosecution, which is still pending, accuses him of threatening the president in a photo of seashells posted on social media.
In his ruling Monday, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman, a nominee of former President Barack Obama, wrote that the Department of Justice "invented a new and expansive theory of executive power" in dismissing Maurene Comey, and violated her constitutional right to due process.
"To accept Defendants' argument would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation's constitutional system," the judge wrote.
The opinion adds to concerns of politically motivated dismissals at the DOJ. Several federal prosecutors and former FBI agents have sued the DOJ under the Trump administration over their dismissals, alleging that they were fired for political reasons tied to their work.
Comey's lawyers praised Monday's ruling, and said it reaffirms that the president must comply with the law as part of the Constitution's checks and balances.
"This hard-earned victory belongs to Ms. Comey, to all civil servants, and to all fighting for the rule of law," her attorneys said in a statement.
The judge's ruling calls for Comey to receive back pay dating to when she was fired last year, and for her to return as a prosecutor to the Southern District of New York, if she so chooses.
The Justice Department said it disagreed with the decision, and would appeal in due course.
The court's order is not final. Judge Furman did yet not rule on Maurene Comey's First Amendment argument that she was fired for politically protected speech, and plans to hear further briefings on that claim.
—With assistance from NPR's Carrie Johnson.
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