Trump 'illegally' fired James Comey's daughter Maurene who led Epstein and Diddy prosecutions, judge finds in bombshell ruling

Published: 12:55 EDT, 26 October 2026 | Updated: 13:44 EDT, 26 October 2026 A federal judge on Monday ruled that the Justice Department illegally fired Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, from her job as a federal prosecutor in New York.Comey was abruptly fired last July from her job as an assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York, where she had served for roughly a decade and overseen some of the department's most high-profile prosecutions - including its cases against Jeffrey Epstein, Sean 'Diddy' Combs, and former Senator Robert Menendez. Comey sued to challenge her removal, which she argued was unconstitutional and violated the separation of powers, the First Amendment, and her due process rights under the Fifth Amendment.The federal judge overseeing her case largely agreed. US District Judge Jesse M. Furman said Monday that Comey's termination 'was not authorized by any statute,' despite the Trump administration's arguments to the contrary, and ruled that it violated the Civil Service Reform Act, which limits the conditions by which federal workers can be removed from their jobs.'Indeed, to accept Defendants' argument would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation's constitutional system,' Furman said.The judge further ordered Comey be granted retroactive back pay, beginning December 20, 2025, as well as retroactive reinstatement to her role - though it is unclear whether Comey, who is now in private practice, plans to return to the Justice Department. Former FBI director James Comey is sworn in during a hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Capitol Hill in 2017 The judge also noted Comey had been 'assigned some of the country’s highest profile cases' during her nearly 10 years at DOJ and had 'consistently received the highest accolades from supervisors and peers alike.'The ruling caps, for now, months of dispute between the Trump administration and Comey's daughter, who argued last year she was fired due to the president's longstanding adversarial relationship with her father, whom Trump fired as FBI director in 2017 - just several years into his ten-year tenure as the head of the bureau. Comey argued last year 'no plausible' explanation existed for her firing from the Justice Department, barring the fact that her father is one of Trump's biggest perceived political foes. Since taking office last January, Trump has brought two separate criminal cases against James Comey - the first, for allegedly making false statements to Congress, and the second, for allegedly threatening Trump by way of an Instagram photo he posted of seashells arranged to depict the numbers '86 47.'This is a breaking news story and will be updated.