A federal judge ruled Monday that the Justice Department’s firing of New York federal prosecutor Maurene Comey last year was illegal.
Judge Jesse Furman also ordered that Comey, who is the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, be retroactively reinstated to her position as assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. The judge also ordered that she receive back pay.
Maurene Comey, who participated in the prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, was fired in July 2025.
His father has long been the target of criticism from President Donald Trump. James Comey is currently being prosecuted for allegedly threatening Trump’s life by posting a photo on Instagram of seashells forming the number “86 47”; his lawyers are seeking to have this case dismissed.
Furman, in his ruling for Maurene Comey in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, rejected DOJ arguments that then-Attorney General Pam Bondi could remove a federal prosecutor “at will” and without cause, and that current Attorney General Todd Blanche could ratify that act after the fact.
Furman also rejected the DOJ’s argument that even though the Civil Service Reform Act requires the removal of a prosecutor for cause, the firing of an attorney general constituted an implied determination that she was removed from office “for a reason likely to promote the efficiency of the department.”
The judge said the DOJ had all but admitted that its argument that the attorney general had the authority to fire Comey under Article II of the Constitution sought to “overturn nearly two centuries of Supreme Court precedent.”
“This Court, however, is required to follow Supreme Court precedents unless and until the Supreme Court overturns them,” Furman wrote.
Comey’s lawyers, in a statement released Monday, said: “This hard-won victory belongs to Ms. Comey, to all public officials and to all those who fight for the rule of law.” »
“As the Court rightly held, to accept the Government’s argument regarding unlimited executive power ‘would amount to disrupting the very balance established by this nation’s constitutional system,'” the lawyers said. “This decision reaffirms our fundamental system of checks and balances: the president is not above the law.”
CNBC has requested comment on the decision from the DOJ and the White House.
Comey, in a memo to his colleagues in the U.S. Attorney’s Office after his firing, wrote: “If a career prosecutor can be fired without reason, fear could seep into the decisions of those who remain.” »
“Fear is a tyrant’s tool, used to suppress independent thought. Instead of fear, let this moment fuel the fire that already burns at the heart of this place,” she wrote. “A fire of righteous indignation in the face of abuses of power. Of commitment to seek justice for the victims.”
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