Maurene Comey, daughter of ex-FBI director James Comey, was unlawfully fired as federal prosecutor, judge rules

Maurene Comey, daughter of former FBI director James Comey, was unlawfully dismissed from her position as a federal prosecutor in New York last year, a federal judge ruled on Monday (October 26). Judge Jesse Furman said Comey, who served as an assistant US attorney for a decade, was illegally fired in July 2025. He said that she had worked on some of the country’s highest-profile cases and consistently received the highest accolades from supervisors and peers alike.

Following her dismissal, Comey sued the justice department and others, arguing that her termination violated the constitutional separation of powers, the First Amendment and the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. Comey maintained that she was fired because she was the daughter of James Comey, a longtime adversary of Donald Trump, or because of her perceived political affiliation and beliefs, the judge noted.

Furman rejected the government’s argument that federal prosecutors could be dismissed because they exercise the president’s conclusive and preclusive powers. “The Court concludes the Defendants are wrong,” the judge wrote. He said the government’s argument that Congress is prohibited from regulating the removal of federal prosecutors flies in the face of nearly two centuries of Supreme Court precedent. Furman further said, “Indeed, to accept Defendants’ argument would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation’s constitutional system.”

Also Read: Cameroon unveils school-based migration clubs to support young people’s migration choices

The judge ordered Comey’s retroactive reinstatement and back pay from the date of her dismissal through 20 December. The measure was intended to make her whole and ensure she would not face adverse employment consequences resulting from the unlawful termination. Comey’s lawyers, Ellen Blain, Nicole Gueron, Deepa Vanamali and Margaret Donovan, welcomed the ruling.

“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. “As the Court correctly held, to accept the government’s argument about unlimited executive power would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation’s constitutional system. This decision reaffirms our bedrock system of checks and balances: the President is not above the law.”

During the Trump administration, the justice department has dismissed scores of career employees, including prosecutors and FBI agents, who took part in investigations involving the president or were perceived to oppose the administration’s agenda. Several of these dismissals have also led to federal lawsuits.

Comey’s firing attracted particular attention because of her father’s longstanding adversarial relationship with Trump.

Trump dismissed James Comey as FBI director in May 2017 while the bureau was investigating links between Russia and the Republican’s successful 2016 presidential campaign. Since then, Trump has repeatedly called for Comey to be jailed, while his justice department has pursued efforts to achieve that outcome with mixed success.

An earlier criminal case accusing James Comey of lying to Congress in 2020 was dismissed by a judge who determined that the prosecutor who brought the charges had been illegally appointed. A separate indictment against the former FBI director remains pending. It accuses him of threatening Trump through an Instagram photograph showing seashells arranged in the numerical sequence ‘8647’.