US Judge Rules Trump Administration Illegally Fired Former Federal Prosecutor Maurene Comey

A United States district judge has ruled that former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey was illegally fired by the administration of President Donald Trump, delivering a notable legal setback to the executive branch’s efforts to remove civil servants.

US District Judge Jesse Furman issued his decision on Monday, concluding that the administration had overstepped constitutional boundaries by dismissing so-called “inferior officers” without cause. Furman firmly rejected the administration’s legal position that the president maintains absolute authority to undertake such firings despite protections established by Congress.

To accept the defendants’ argument would be to unsettle the constitutional equilibrium, Furman wrote in his opinion, adding that the administration had invented an expansive theory of executive power and utilized it to remove other Executive Branch employees who have long held statutory protections from removal.

Maurene Comey had served as an assistant US attorney for the Department of Justice since 2015 based in Manhattan. During her tenure, she prosecuted several high-profile defendants, including convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, and music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs. Her position was terminated on July 16, 2025. In her subsequent lawsuit, Comey alleged that her dismissal violated federal laws barring the termination of civil servants for political reasons and breached the separation of powers under the US Constitution.

Legal representation for Comey argued that her termination stemmed directly from presidential antipathy toward her father, James Comey, who led the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 2013 to 2017 before being fired during Trump’s first term. James Comey has since become one of the Republican leader’s most prominent critics.

The Department of Justice countered during the proceedings that the president holds broad latitude to dismiss federal employees without cause. Following Monday’s ruling, administration representatives announced plans to appeal the decision.

In his ruling, Judge Furman granted Comey’s request for back pay covering the period from her July firing through December, while also determining that she is entitled to retroactive reinstatement for that timeframe.

Since returning to office for a second term, the Trump administration has pursued efforts to downsize the federal workforce and replace investigators and prosecutors associated with cases opposed by the president. These actions have coincided with renewed pressure on the Justice Department regarding James Comey. On September 20, 2025, Trump used social media to publicly urge then-Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue charges against the former FBI director.

Subsequent legal actions against the elder Comey followed, including a September 2025 indictment for lying to Congress that a judge later dismissed in November after ruling that the prosecuting attorney, Lindsey Halligan, had been unlawfully appointed. In April, James Comey faced a separate indictment accusing him of threatening the president through a social media image of seashells arranged to spell out “86 47.” Prosecutors argued the numbers constituted an organized crime threat directed at the 47th president, while the former FBI chief dismissed the proceedings as political persecution.