Judge nails glaring omission in brutal ruling against Trump DOJ

Editor’s Note: This story and headline have been updated.

A federal judge delivered a stinging defeat to President Donald Trump's Justice Department on Monday, ruling that its firing of former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey was illegal and ordering her retroactive reinstatement and back pay.

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman rejected the administration's argument that the president had the authority to fire Comey, daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, without following normal federal employment protections, according to NBC.

Furman completely rejected the Justice Department's broad legal argument in his 55-page decision, concluding that her removal was a breach of the Civil Service Reform Act.

The judge also rejected the administration's argument that Congress cannot limit the ability to dismiss federal prosecutors, saying it "flies in the face of nearly two centuries of Supreme Court precedent."

Comey was canned from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York on July 16, 2025, after nearly 10 years as a career prosecutor.

Her firing came in the form of an email from Justice Department officials in Washington citing Article II of the Constitution but giving no indication whatsoever as to her performance or conduct.

According to the ruling, Comey got no advance notice and had no opportunity to respond. The government conceded that her firing was not for performance reasons and was not for cause.

Furman said the attorney general has the authority to remove assistant U.S. attorneys but is still bound by the laws that protect career federal employees.

"And Comey's removal indisputably violated the CSRA," he wrote.

The judge ordered her retroactively reinstated from the date of her dismissal through Dec. 20, 2025, with back pay. The reinstatement is limited to the period before she accepted other employment rather than requiring her to walk away from her current job.

Comey had worked on major prosecutions involving Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Sean "Diddy" Combs. Furman observed that both her supervisors and her colleagues had consistently lauded her work.

Trump supporters had publicly called for Comey's firing before she was fired. When she asked officials at the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office why she had been fired, she was told only that the decision had come from Washington, according to court records.

The judge took issue with that omission, noting, "Who actually made the decision to remove Comey is not clear from the record and is, at least to some extent, disputed. The Complaint does not identify a decisionmaker."

She took the administration to court following her dismissal, claiming she was the victim of targeted retaliation either because of her father, whom Trump had fired as FBI director in 2017, or because of her perceived political views.

The ruling establishes that her dismissal violated federal law, the constitutional separation of powers, and her Fifth Amendment due process rights. It does not find that she was fired in retaliation for her father.

Furman warned that accepting the Justice Department's broad reading of executive power would upset the constitutional balance of the country.