Photo via NBC News

Judge orders DOJ to reinstate former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, daughter of former FBI director

Read the original at NBC News ↗
Cite

Gregorian, D. (2026, October 26). Judge orders DOJ to reinstate former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, daughter of former FBI director. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/doj-justice-maurene-comey-court-reinstate-rcna605720

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

NBC News · collected 2026-10-26 · by Dareh Gregorian

Quick Summary

Federal Judge Jesse Furman ruled on Monday that the Justice Department unlawfully terminated former Assistant United States Attorney Maurene Comey in July 2025, ordering her reinstatement with backpay through December 20, 2025. The judge determined that firing Comey violated due process and statutory rights, criticizing the Trump administration’s claim of unrestricted power to fire career prosecutors without proper cause or explanation. Comey had worked on several high-profile cases in New York before being fired, allegedly because of her father James Comey's dismissal as FBI Director in 2017 by President Donald Trump.
Written by AI on 2026-10-26, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

On October 26, 2026, US District Judge Jesse Furman ordered the Trump Justice Department to reinstate former Assistant United States Attorney Maurene Comey, daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, after ruling her dismissal in July 2025 was unlawful. The judge stated that allowing Comey’s firing to stand would "unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation's constitutional system." Judge Furman rejected the government's argument that federal prosecutors can be dismissed because they exercise presidential powers, noting it contradicts nearly two centuries of Supreme Court precedent. The Justice Department has expressed disagreement with the decision and plans to appeal in due course.

Written for “Judge Rules Maurene Comey's Firing Illegal” on 2026-11-04, grounded in this article and the 11 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Judge Rules Maurene Comey's Firing Illegal
Politics · 12 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads leans left and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
NPR
⚖️ Leans left Hedges 1 of 17 claims Outlet record 60/100
The Guardian
Hedges 2 of 9 claims Outlet record 66/100
Washington Examiner
⚖️ Leans left Hedges 0 of 4 claims Outlet record 69/100
The Independent
Hedges 5 of 21 claims Outlet record 59/100
Times of India
Hedges 2 of 10 claims Outlet record 59/100
The Independent
⚖️ Leans left Hedges 2 of 11 claims Outlet record 59/100
Al Jazeera
Hedges 0 of 36 claims Outlet record 60/100
Fox News
⚖️ Leans left Hedges 1 of 16 claims Outlet record 68/100
Daily Mail
⚖️ Leans left Hedges 0 of 5 claims Outlet record 69/100
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
15
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 15 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans left
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
78/100
NBC News's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
12
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-26 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

NBC News · 2146 article(s) · 2 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 2 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Dareh Gregorian
15 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 She focused on issues such as border security and tax cuts, and she chose John Giles, a former Republican and former mayor of Mesa, as her running mate.
🔮 The dismissal came after an FBI agent testified at a preliminary hearing last week that he was concerned the investigation, which had been directed by FBI Director Kash Patel, would be viewed as “political.”
🔮 It included a typewritten note depicting an imaginary conversation with Epstein, who would later be charged with sex trafficking.
🔮 Witt said he was unhappy with the assignment, in part because “I had concerns that this would be viewed as political.”
🔮 “If Plaintiff’s last-minute request for relief were granted, either party could create chaos for their own political purposes to disrupt the election process.”
🔮 Prosecutor John Borchert of the U.S. attorney’s office for Washington, D.C., acknowledged in court Tuesday that “this has never been done before” but suggested the complaint could be signed during the hearing.
🔮 “It could be that the grand jury just made the wrong decision,” he said then, referring broadly to failed indictments.
🔮 The Trump administration’s assertion that it can fire career prosecutors at will would “unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation’s constitutional system,” the judge wrote.
🔮 Trump, an avid golfer, said the renovation would begin “on November 15th, when the old Course will be closed to play.”
🔮 “She has been a wonderful asset to the team, and we wish her well.”
Also by Dareh Gregorian
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 15 articles by Dareh Gregorian →

Topics

Congress FBI The Justice Department U.S. United States

Subjects

Comey PERSON · 10× Trump PERSON · 5× FBI ORG · 3× James Comey PERSON · 3× Congress ORG · 2× Maurene Comey PERSON · 2× The Justice Department ORG · 2× U.S. GPE · 2× The Justice Department’s ORG · 1× United States GPE · 1×

Narrative

Maurene Comey filed suit in September of 2025, alleging the Trump administration provided “no legitimate explanation” for firing her after almost 10 years of service, and that it had only done so because of President Donald Trump’s “well-known and longstanding vendetta against James Comey, whom he fired as FBI Director in 2017.”
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-26
🔮 The Trump administration’s assertion that it can fire career prosecutors at will would “unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation’s constitutional system,” the judge wrote.

Claims (15 extracted, 0 hedged)

A federal judge ruled Monday that former Assistant United States Attorney Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, was “unlawfully terminated” and ordered that she be reinstated to her job. asserted
she → rule → job
The Justice Department’s abrupt firing of Comey in July 2025 violated the separation of powers and Comey’s Fifth Amendment due process and statutory rights, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman found. asserted
Furman → violate → powers
The Trump administration’s assertion that it can fire career prosecutors at will would “unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation’s constitutional system,” the judge wrote. asserted
judge → fire → system
He granted Comey “retroactive reinstatement and backpay effective from the date of her termination through December 20, 2025,” when she began a new job. asserted
she → grant → job
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. asserted
Department → respond → comment
Comey had worked on a number of high-profile cases in the Southern District of New York, including the prosecutions of Sean “Diddy” Combs, former Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell. asserted
Comey → work → Combs
Maurene Comey filed suit in September of 2025, alleging the Trump administration provided “no legitimate explanation” for firing her after almost 10 years of service, and that it had only done so because of President Donald Trump’s “well-known and longstanding vendetta against James Comey, whom he fired as FBI Director in 2017.” asserted
he → file → 2017
Comey said the only thing she was told about her firing from her boss was that it “came from Washington.” asserted
it → say → Washington
The Justice Department later said in a court filing she was removed at the direction of then-Attorney General Pam Bondi. asserted
she → say → Bondi
The judge found Bondi did not follow the law when she fired Comey, depriving Comey of her rights to due process. asserted
she → find → process
“Congress granted the Attorney General power to remove Comey,” the judge wrote, but “Congress imposed limits on that power — limits that, even Defendants concede, were violated in Comey’s case.” asserted
Defendants → grant → case
The Trump administration has routinely fired career federal prosecutors along with FBI employees, particularly focusing on individuals involved in prior investigations of Trump or with the massive investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. asserted
administration → fire → Capitol
The administration is also continuing to push forward with a federal criminal case brought against James Comey over a photo of seashells that they contend amounted to a threat against Trump. asserted
they → continue → Trump
The seashells case has been delayed until at least early 2027 as a judge weighs whether to dismiss it. asserted
judge → delay → it
Comey’s team has argued the case is a product of Trump’s retribution campaign rather than a good faith application of federal law and that “dictionaries, context, precedent, and common sense” show the seashells photo was not a true threat. asserted
photo → argue → law
💬Give feedback · no sign-in needed

No sign-in needed for now. Your note is sent without a name, so it cannot be answered.

🕘History 🎫Support