Federal Judge Orders Retroactive Reinstatement of Maurene Comey, Rules 2025 DOJ Firing Unlawful

U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman ruled Monday that the Justice Department unlawfully terminated Maurene Comey, daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, from her position as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York in July 2025.

Furman, appointed by President Barack Obama in 2011, issued a 55-page decision finding that the firing violated the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, the constitutional separation of powers, the Administrative Procedure Act, and Comey’s Fifth Amendment due process rights. The judge ordered retroactive reinstatement and back pay from the date of her termination through December 20, 2025, the day she began a new job as a partner at the law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler. He also directed that her personnel records be adjusted to reflect a resignation rather than a firing, and that she receive credit for more than 10 years of service along with related retirement contributions.

Comey, who joined the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2015, had worked on high-profile prosecutions including those of Jeffrey Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell and Sean “Diddy” Combs. Court records and the opinion noted that she consistently received the highest performance ratings from supervisors and peers, including “outstanding” reviews from 2019 through 2024. She was fired on July 16, 2025, via an email from Justice Department headquarters that cited Article II of the Constitution and the laws of the United States, without stating a performance-related reason. Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi directed the removal, which was later ratified by her successor, Todd Blanche, according to filings.

The Justice Department argued that assistant U.S. attorneys exercise core executive powers and that the attorney general therefore possesses unrestricted authority under Article II to remove them at will, unconstrained by congressional statutes. Furman rejected that position, writing that the claim “flies in the face of nearly two centuries of Supreme Court precedent” and that accepting it “would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation’s constitutional system.” He concluded that Comey was an “inferior” officer subject to the removal limits Congress imposed in the Civil Service Reform Act, which the government conceded had not been followed in her case. The opinion stated that the attorney general is authorized to remove an assistant U.S. attorney only “in a particular manner and only for certain reasons.”

Comey’s lawsuit alleged that she was terminated solely or substantially because of her father’s identity or her perceived political affiliation. Furman reserved judgment on her First Amendment claim, noting that it appeared largely moot because she is now in private practice and no longer seeks actual reinstatement to the office. A Justice Department spokesperson said the department disagrees with the decision and will appeal “in due course.” Comey’s attorneys described the ruling as a “hard-earned victory” that reaffirms “our bedrock system of checks and balances: the President is not above the law.”

The decision applies only to the period between her July 2025 firing and her December 2025 start in private practice. Furman indicated that the precise amount of back pay would be determined later. The ruling comes amid broader litigation over the administration’s removal of career federal employees and its reliance on Article II as a basis for those actions.