Judge: Maurene Comey was illegally fired from Justice Department

By Kara Scannell, CNN

(CNN) — A federal judge on Monday found the Justice Department’s firing of Maurene Comey, a former federal prosecutor who presided over several high-profile cases including those of Jeffrey Epstein and Sean “Diddy” Combs, was unconstitutional.

Comey, an assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York for nearly a decade, was fired in July 2025. She filed a lawsuit claiming the firing was in retaliation because her father is former FBI Director James Comey, a vocal opponent of President Donald Trump.

Until she was fired, Comey received accolades from her supervisors and was frequently tapped for some of the office’s biggest cases. DOJ, in its arguments, acknowledged Comey was not fired for cause or due to her performance.

Judge Jesse Furman said the Justice Department’s firing violated the separation of powers clause of the US Constitution, which places limits on how certain federal employees can be fired. He also found it violated the Civil Service Reform Act, which guards the process by which federal employees can be removed.

“Yes, the Attorney General is authorized by law to remove an AUSA. But the Attorney General (and anyone to whom the Attorney General delegates that authority) is also limited by law, namely the CSRA, to do so only in a particular manner and only for certain reasons. And Comey’s removal indisputably violated the CSRA,” Furman wrote.

The Justice Department had argued the attorney general exercises the president’s powers and could not be limited by Congress.

Furman said DOJ’s argument that Congress cannot dictate how federal employees are removed would upend two centuries of Supreme Court decisions. To agree with DOJ would “risk a return to the spoils system that Congress has sought to end since the nineteenth century,” he wrote.

Comey is currently working as a defense lawyer. The judge ordered her to receive backpay until the time she took on that position.

“This hard-earned victory belongs to Ms. Comey, to all civil servants, and to all fighting for the rule of law,” Maurene Comey’s legal team said in a statement. “As the Court correctly held, to accept the government’s argument about unlimited executive power ‘would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation’s constitutional system.’”

A DOJ spokesperson said, “The department disagrees with this decision and will appeal in due course.”

After she was fired, Comey told her former colleagues in an email that her sudden dismissal should “fuel the fire” of their work fighting abuses of power.

“If a career prosecutor can be fired without reason, fear may seep into the decisions of those who remain,” she wrote in a message to her former colleagues, which was obtained by CNN. “Do not let that happen.”

She continued: “Fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought. Instead of fear, let this moment fuel the fire that already burns at the heart of this place. A fire of righteous indignation at abuses of power. Of commitment to seek justice for victims. Of dedication to truth above all else.”

Furman, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, did not rule on Comey’s claim that her termination violated the First Amendment. He asked both sides for further briefings on that topic.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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