Politics
Federal judge orders possible reinstatement and back pay for Maurene Comey
A judge found the Justice Department unlawfully dismissed the longtime Manhattan prosecutor, ruling that she is entitled to back pay and may return to her post. The department says it will appeal, and a separate First Amendment claim remains unresolved.
A federal judge in New York ruled Monday that the Justice Department unlawfully fired Maurene Comey, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor and the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman found that the department violated Comey’s constitutional right to due process when it dismissed her in July 2025. His order calls for the government to provide back pay dating to her firing and allow her to return to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York if she chooses.
The ruling is not final. Furman has not yet decided Comey’s claim that she was fired in retaliation for politically protected speech and plans to consider further arguments on that issue. The Justice Department said it disagrees with the decision and will appeal.
Comey worked as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan for about a decade and handled cases involving Sean “Diddy” Combs, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. She sued the department and other defendants after her dismissal, arguing it was unlawful and unconstitutional. Her lawsuit said she was targeted because of her father, a prominent critic of President Donald Trump.
Furman wrote that the department had “invented a new and expansive theory of executive power” in dismissing Comey. Accepting the government’s position, he said, would unsettle the balance established by the Constitution.
Comey’s attorneys called the decision a victory for civil servants and the rule of law. The case comes amid other lawsuits by former federal prosecutors and FBI personnel who allege they were dismissed for political reasons during the Trump administration.