Trump DOJ’s Firing of Epstein prosecutor Maurene Comey was unlawful, Judge rules.
James Comey's daughter says she was fired because of her father. Judge Jesse Furman ruled the July 2025 firing broke the law.
A federal judge in Manhattan ruled Monday that the Trump Justice Department broke the law when it fired Maurene Comey, the career prosecutor who brought the criminal cases against Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell and Sean "Diddy" Combs, Reuters reported.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern District of New York found the July 2025 firing unlawful. Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, spent nearly a decade as an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan.
Fired by a one-line memo
Comey got a memo in July 2025 giving "notice of removal from federal service," effective immediately and "Pursuant to Article II of the United States Constitution," CBS News reported. It gave no reason. According to her lawsuit, when she asked then-interim U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton why, he told her, "All I can say is it came from Washington."
She sued in September 2025 (Comey v. U.S. Department of Justice, No. 1:25-cv-07625). She argued she was fired because of her father, in violation of the Civil Service Reform Act, the federal law that bars firing career civil servants for political reasons, and of her due process rights. The Justice Department argued that prosecutors like Comey can be removed without cause by the president or the attorney general.
In April, Furman refused to send the case to the Merit Systems Protection Board, the agency that normally hears federal firing appeals. He wrote that the government's reliance on the Constitution "places Comey's case outside the universe of cases that Congress intended the MSPB to resolve," Courthouse News reported.
What's still unknown
Comey asked to be reinstated retroactively through December 2025, so she could collect back pay and qualify for retirement benefits. She joined the law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler as a partner in February. It was not immediately clear what relief Furman ordered or whether the Justice Department will appeal.
Why it matters to workers
Career federal employees rely on the same civil service protections Comey invoked. The administration's theory, that the Constitution lets it skip those rules, would leave any of them open to being fired for who their relatives are or what they believe. A court has now rejected that theory for a career prosecutor. Her case differs from that of NLRB member Gwynne Wilcox, a presidential appointee whose firing the Supreme Court let stand.
We applaud the ruling. Civil servants work for the public, not for the president's grudges.
Sources
- Reuters via Yahoo News: Trump administration's firing of prosecutor Maurene Comey was unlawful, judge rules
- CBS News: Judge allows Maurene Comey's lawsuit challenging her firing to move forward
- Courthouse News Service: Judge allows fired prosecutor Maurene Comey to bring wrongful termination suit
- Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse: Comey v. U.S. Department of Justice case page
Comments ()