Overview
- A federal judge in Manhattan found on Monday that Maurene Comey’s July 2025 removal from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York was unlawful and deprived her of due process.
- Judge Jesse M. Furman ordered Comey retroactively reinstated and awarded back pay covering her dismissal through Dec. 20, 2025, a span chosen so she could qualify for pay and retirement benefits.
- Furman rejected the Justice Department’s argument that Article II gives the president and attorney general unfettered power to remove line prosecutors, citing the Civil Service Reform Act and long-standing precedent that Congress may limit removals.
- The Justice Department said it disagrees with the ruling and will appeal, a step that could keep broader questions about executive removal power tied up in higher courts.
- Hours after the ruling, court records unsealed a separate criminal information charging former FBI director James Comey with unlawfully communicating national defense information, marking the third federal case brought against him by the administration.