A New York federal judge has ruled that the US Justice Department unlawfully dismissed former prosecutor Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey.
Judge Jesse Furman said the department violated Ms Comey’s constitutional right to due process when she was fired in July 2025. He ordered that she receive back pay and be allowed to return as a prosecutor at the Southern District of New York if she chooses.
Ms Comey had worked as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan for about a decade, handling high-profile cases involving Sean “Diddy” Combs, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. She had regularly received praise from the department for her work.
Her lawsuit alleged that she was dismissed because of her father’s status as a prominent critic of President Trump. The Justice Department has twice indicted Mr Comey; the first case was dismissed, while a second prosecution remains pending over an accusation that he threatened the president in a photograph of seashells posted on social media.
In his ruling, Judge Furman said the Justice Department had “invented a new and expansive theory of executive power” in dismissing Ms Comey.
“To accept Defendants’ argument would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation’s constitutional system,” he wrote.
Ms Comey’s lawyers said the decision reaffirmed that the president must comply with the law under the constitutional system of checks and balances.
“This hard-earned victory belongs to Ms. Comey, to all civil servants, and to all fighting for the rule of law,” they said in a statement.
The ruling comes as several federal prosecutors and former FBI agents have sued the Justice Department over dismissals during the Trump administration, alleging that they were removed for political reasons linked to their work.
The department said it disagreed with the decision and would appeal. The court’s order is not final: Judge Furman has yet to rule on Ms Comey’s First Amendment claim that she was fired for politically protected speech and is due to consider further submissions on that issue.
