WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to reinstate Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, ruling that her 2025 dismissal from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York was unlawful.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman also ordered the Justice Department to provide Comey with back pay.
“Congress granted the Attorney General power to remove Comey,” Furman wrote in a sharply worded, 55-page ruling. “Congress imposed limits on that power — limits that, even Defendants concede, were violated in Comey’s case.”
Furman warned that allowing the dismissal to remain in place “would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation’s constitutional system.”
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Comey was fired in July 2025 after a distinguished career that included prominent roles in the prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender; his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell; and hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The administration is expected to appeal Furman’s decision, particularly after the Supreme Court’s June ruling expanded the president’s authority to remove federal officials at will.
James Comey is awaiting trial in North Carolina on federal charges alleging that he threatened to kill the president. He has argued that the indictment stems from selective and vindictive prosecution. His arraignment is scheduled for January 2027.