Judge voids DOJ firing of prosecutor Maurene Comey, ordering full restoration

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman ordered the Justice Department to reinstate Maurene Comey, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, after finding her July 2025 termination unlawful. The ruling, issued on Monday, determined that the government’s decision to fire the prosecutor violated the separation of powers and her Fifth Amendment due process rights.

Furman directed the agency to pay Comey back wages from the date of her dismissal through December 20, 2025, the day she started a new position. The judge stated that the administration’s claim that it could remove career prosecutors at will threatened to destabilize the constitutional balance established by the nation’s founders.

Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, had served nearly a decade with the department. She worked on high-profile prosecutions, including those of Sean “Diddy” Combs, former Senator Bob Menendez, and Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. In a lawsuit filed in September 2025, her attorneys argued the administration provided no legitimate reason for her firing other than President Donald Trump’s long-standing animosity toward her father.

The Justice Department asserted in court filings that Attorney General Pam Bondi directed the removal and that the attorney general possesses broad authority to fire staff without cause. Furman rejected that interpretation, writing that Congress placed specific limits on the attorney general’s removal power. He noted that even the defendants admitted those limits were breached in this case.

Furman described the department’s legal stance as a sweeping theory of executive authority that contradicted nearly two centuries of Supreme Court precedent. He observed that the administration had used this new theory to remove other executive branch employees who traditionally held protections against arbitrary dismissal.

A Justice Department spokesperson said the agency disagrees with the ruling and intends to appeal. In a joint statement, Comey’s attorneys, including Ellen Blain and Nicole Gueron, said the decision reaffirms that the president is subject to the law. They noted that the outcome belongs to Comey and to other civil servants who rely on the rule of law.

The administration continues to pursue a federal criminal case against James Comey over a photo of seashells, which prosecutors argue constituted a threat. That case has been paused until early 2027 while a judge considers a motion to dismiss it. James Comey’s legal team maintains the case stems from retribution rather than a good-faith application of the law.