Trump administration defends firing of James Comey’s daughter

Weeks before the firing, far-right influencer Laura Loomer called on the Trump administration to "fire Comey's rat daughter." It's illegal to fire federal civil servants for political reasons.MANHATTAN (CN) — The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday defended the July 2025 termination of former New York City federal prosecutor Maurene Comey.Comey claims she was fired largely because she is the daughter of James Comey, the fired FBI director who clashed with President Donald Trump during Trump’s first term.A former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Maurene Comey sued the Trump administration in September 2025 over what she said was her politically motivated firing.On Friday, Comey’s Manhattan-based attorney Ellen Blain argued there was no legitimate explanation for the firing. Blain accuses the feds of violating the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which prohibits firing civil servants for political or other illegitimate reasons.“The government would have this court overrule almost two centuries of work by three branches of government [and] make the civil service into a partisan civil service," Blain argued. “That is not what the CSRA does. That’s what the CSRA expressly prevents.”Comey’s co-counsel Nicole Gueron, from the firm Gueron Reisbaum LLP, argued Maurene Comey was likely terminated because of political animus toward her father and a presumption that she held a disfavored viewpoint — both prohibited under the First Amendment.“It is far more plausible that she was fired for reasons that violated the First Amendment than anything else,” Gueron said. “She’s basically deemed a political enemy, a thought criminal.”In her complaint, Comey repeatedly pointed to social media posts by Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist, influencer and Trump ally.Loomer urged the president to purge disloyal federal employees and singled out Maurene Comey in particular. In a May 2025 post, Loomer called for James Comey’s “liberal daughter” and her “Democrat husband” to be “FIRED from the DOJ immediately," accusing them of “being a national security risk" for their connection to James Comey.“Don’t expect anything good to happen at the DOJ if Blondi [sic] can’t even bring herself to fire Comey’s rat daughter," Loomer added in another post, referencing former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.Justice Department attorney Tyler Becker argued the Department of Justice’s firing of Maurene Comey was a lawful exercise of removal power under Article II of the Constitution, which he argues gave the president broad powers to remove officials without cause.Arguing in support of a motion to dismiss, the Federalist Society-aligned lawyer wrote that federal firings were governed by separate federal statute “if the Attorney General removes [an assistant U.S. attorney] — as happened here.”Blain described these legal arguments as “contortions.” She argued the Trump administration’s firings have “caused havoc through” the federal civilian workforce.Maurene Comey “clearly worked her heart and soul in this district for a decade,” Blain argued. “To have been summarily fired without warning, without notice, because of who her father is, upends bedrock principles of our democracy.”U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman, a Barack Obama appointee overseeing the case, did not issue a bench ruling on Friday but promised a written opinion soon.As a prosecutor in New York City, Maurene Comey worked on numerous high-profile cases. Those include the prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as the case against entertainment mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.Maurene Comey received the DOJ Director’s Award for Superior Performance by a Litigative Team and was considered one of the top trial lawyers in the Manhattan prosecutor’s office. She is currently a partner at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads