Judge orders back pay for James Comey’s daughter, finding she was illegally fired

A federal judge on Monday ruled that Maureen Comey, a former senior prosecutor at the Justice Department and the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, was unlawfully fired and is entitled to back pay.

In a 55-page opinion, Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern District of New York ruled that Comey’s July 2025 firing from her job as a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York was a violation of the Civil Service Reform Act and the Constitution. Furman, an Obama appointee, ordered her reinstated with back pay from her firing through December 2025, when she accepted a job as a partner with a Manhattan-based law firm. The opinion does not give Comey the option to return to the prosecutor’s office.

Furman also determined the DOJ violated separation of powers principles under the Constitution and Comey’s Fifth Amendment due process rights, as well as her rights under the Administrative Procedure Act.

Comey filed a civil suit against the DOJ after she was fired last year in a terse letter that stated she was being terminated “pursuant to Article II of the United States Constitution and the laws of the United States,” without further elaboration. Her lawsuit alleged that she was unlawfully fired because of her affiliation to her father — whom President Donald Trump has unsuccessfully sought to prosecute — and/or because of her perceived political affiliation and beliefs. She also named then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, the head of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys, and the White House as defendants.

Comey led the Southern District of New York’s cases against convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, music mogul Sean Combs and others. Furman noted that during her tenure, Comey “consistently received the highest accolades from supervisors and peers alike.” Comey spent nearly a decade as an assistant U.S. attorney at the Southern District of New York before she was fired.

While the court’s decision is a near-total victory for Comey on her legal claims, she has been waiting for relief since September 2025, when she filed her complaint. Comey joined the Manhattan-based law firm of Patterson Belknap as a partner three months later.

Comey’s lawyers called the decision a “hard-earned victory” for her and “all civil servants and … all fighting for the rule of law.”

“This decision reaffirms our bedrock system of checks and balances: the President is not above the law,” they said in a statement.

Maurene Comey did not respond to a request for comment from MS NOW.

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

The Trump DOJ has fired several high-level prosecutors who have refused to carry out the administration’s priorities — including one who declined to lead the prosecution of James Comey. That case has been delayed until early next year. In the meantime, the former FBI director has vowed to continue critcizing Trump despite the pending litigation.

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