Judge Rules Firing of Prosecutor Maurene Comey Unlawful in Blow to Trump Administration
A U.S. federal judge ruled on Monday, October 26, that the Trump administration's abrupt firing of former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey was unlawful, according to Reuters. Maurene Comey is the eldest daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, a longtime adversary of President Donald Trump, who fired him during his first term.
Maurene Comey was fired by the Justice Department in July 2025 after nearly a decade at the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office, where she brought criminal cases against Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell and music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs. In her lawsuit, she alleged she was fired because of who her father was, in violation of federal laws prohibiting the firing of civil servants for political reasons and guaranteeing federal employees due process in employment disputes.
The case was seen as a test of whether the Trump administration can swiftly fire line prosecutors like Comey, who are not politically appointed and whose careers tend to span both Republican and Democratic administrations. In court papers, the Justice Department argued that prosecutors like Comey are subject to removal without cause by the president or the attorney general because they are delegated a high degree of executive authority when they represent the federal government in court in criminal cases.
The case is before Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman. In her lawsuit, Maurene Comey asked the judge to retroactively reinstate her as a prosecutor through December 2025 so she could receive back pay and qualify for retirement benefits. In February, she was hired as a partner at the law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler.
Reuters also noted that the Justice Department last year charged James Comey with lying to Congress about authorizing leaks to the news media; he pleaded not guilty and the case was dismissed after a judge found the U.S. attorney who secured the charges was not lawfully appointed. James Comey has since been charged in a separate federal case with threatening Trump, and has pleaded not guilty.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于纽约 Manhattan 的 Daniel Patrick Moynihan 美国联邦法院大楼（纽约南区联邦地区法院所在地）资料图。摄影：Flickr 用户 83136374@N05，CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / The Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse in Manhattan, home of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (file photo). Photo: Flickr user 83136374@N05, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
