JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
in the second Trump administration, the Justice Department has fired scores of federal prosecutors. Among them, Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey. She sued, and today a federal judge found her firing was unlawful. NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is here in the studio. Hey, Ryan.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Hi there.
SUMMERS: Ryan, I want to get today's ruling, but before we do, just tell us more about Maurene Comey's career as well as her lawsuit.
LUCAS: So Maurene Comey worked as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan for around a decade, and during that time, she worked on several high-profile cases, including against Sean Combs, Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell. She also happens to be, as you noted, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, who, of course, is a prominent vocal critic of President Trump. Now, the Trump Justice Department fired Maurene Comey in July of 2025. In response, she sued, arguing that her dismissal was unlawful, unconstitutional. Her lawsuit says she was given no reason for her firing. It says she was dismissed because of who her father is and his very vocal criticism of President Trump. It is worth noting here, the Justice Department has brought criminal charges against James Comey twice. In fact, now a third time.
SUMMERS: OK.
LUCAS: Just moments ago, a case was unsealed against James Comey here in Washington, D.C., for allegedly disclosing classified information. Now, the Justice Department rejected the claims in Maurene Comey's lawsuit. It argued that her firing was legally sound. In the end, though, today, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman sided with Maurene Comey.
SUMMERS: What did Judge Furman find in this ruling?
LUCAS: Well, without going too far into the legal weeds, the judge found that her firing violated the separation of powers, the Administrative Procedures Act, as well as her Fifth Amendment due process rights. And Judge Furman wrote in his ruling that accepting the government's arguments in this case would unsettle the very equilibrium, as he put it, of the constitutional system. He ordered that the Justice Department retroactively reinstate Maurene Comey and give her back pay running from the date of her firing in July of 2025 through December of that year when she took a job at a private law firm.
SUMMERS: Any response so far from the Department of Justice or Maurene Comey?
LUCAS: Well, the Justice Department said in a statement that it disagrees with the ruling. It said it will appeal in due course. Comey's attorneys, unsurprisingly, they welcomed today's decision. They said it was a very hard-earned victory that reaffirms what they called the country's bedrock system of checks and balances.
SUMMERS: Now, Ryan, as we've talked about before, Maurene Comey is not the only career prosecutor to be fired by this administration. We've talked quite a bit on the show, in fact, about accusations of politically motivated dismissals at the Justice Department, correct?
LUCAS: That's right, yes. There have been a whole bunch of career prosecutors and FBI agents who have been fired by this administration. Some of those people have filed their own lawsuits challenging their dismissal, saying that they were fired for unlawful, improper, political reasons - most recently, nine former FBI employees who worked on investigations into President Trump. They filed a lawsuit earlier this month to contest their firings. That lawsuit and others like it cite many of the same legal grounds in their challenges, including violations of their constitutional rights to due process. And so for those folks challenging their own firings, today's ruling is certainly an encouraging sign.
SUMMERS: NPR's Ryan Lucas, thanks as always.
LUCAS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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