US court rules daughter of Trump critic James Comey was illegally fired

Maurene Comey had argued that she was fired because her father, former FBI chief James Comey, was a target of Trump’s ire.

Former Assistant US Attorney Maurene Comey and her husband Lucas Issacharoff leave a hearing in in New York, December 4, 2025 [Michael R Sisak/AP Photo]

A United States judge has ruled that former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey was illegally fired by the administration of President Donald Trump.

US District Judge Jesse Furman said on Monday that the Trump administration had overstepped the boundaries of executive authority when it fired so-called “inferior officers” without cause.

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He rejected the administration’s position that the president had the power to undertake such firings, regardless of the protections implemented by Congress.

“To accept defendants’ argument would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this nation’s constitutional system,” Furman wrote.

He also dismissed the idea that federal prosecutors like Comey are an extension of the president’s “conclusive and preclusive” powers.

“Defendants invented a new and expansive theory of executive power,” Furman wrote of the Trump administration. “They have also utilised that theory to remove other Executive Branch employees who have long held protections from removal.”

The ruling is a setback for the Trump administration, which has sought to fire federal employees seen as out of step with the president’s priorities.

Critics have also accused Trump of seeking retribution against perceived enemies . Comey is the daughter of former government official James Comey , who led the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2013 to 2017.

He was fired during Trump’s first term and has since become one of the Republican leader’s most visible critics.

Maurene Comey’s legal team had argued that her position was terminated because of Trump’s antipathy towards her father.

In Monday’s decision, Furman granted her request for back pay from the date of her firing on July 16, 2025, through December. He also said she is entitled to “retroactive reinstatement” for that time period.

Maurene Comey had served as an assistant US attorney for the Department of Justice since 2015, based in Manhattan.

She had brought cases against such high-profile figures as convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, his associate Ghislaine Maxwell and music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.

In her lawsuit , Comey alleged that her firing had violated federal laws prohibiting the termination of civil servants for political reasons.

She also pointed to the separation of powers under the US Constitution, which allows Congress to pass regulations governing federal employees, so long as they do not interfere with the president’s authority.

The Department of Justice, under Trump, has countered that the president has wide latitude to fire federal employees without cause.

In response to Monday’s ruling, the administration has said it “disagrees with this decision and will appeal in due course”.

Since returning to office for a second term, Trump has sought to reduce the size of the federal government and remove prosecutors and investigators involved in cases he disagrees with.

He has also pushed the Justice Department to prosecute several of his critics, including James Comey.

In a social media post on September 20, 2025, Trump called on then-Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue charges against James Comey and several others.

“There is a GREAT CASE, and many lawyers, and legal pundits, say so,” Trump wrote.

“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”

James Comey was fired when the FBI was investigating potential links between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. That investigation was a frequent subject of Trump’s anger.

Shortly after the September 2025 post, the Department of Justice charged Comey with lying to Congress. A judge dismissed the case in November after finding the prosecutor who brought the charges, Lindsey Halligan, had been unlawfully appointed.

In April, James Comey was charged again in a separate case accusing him of threatening Trump by sharing an image of seashells on social media.

The seashells were arranged to form the numbers “86 47”. The term “86” is used in the restaurant industry in the US to refer to throwing someone out of a bar, but the Trump administration argued that it is a threat associated with organised crime.

The “47”, it added, was a reference to Trump, the 47th president.

The ex-FBI chief has denounced the case as an example of political persecution under Trump.

莫琳·科米辩称，她被解雇是因为她的父亲，前联邦调查局局长詹姆斯·科米，是特朗普愤怒的目标。

2025年12月4日，前美国助理检察官莫琳·科米和她的丈夫卢卡斯·伊萨查罗夫离开纽约的一场听证会。[迈克尔·R·西萨克/美联社照片]

美国一名法官裁定，前联邦检察官莫琳·科米被唐纳德·特朗普总统的政府非法解雇。

美国地区法官杰西·弗曼周一表示，特朗普政府在没有正当理由的情况下解雇所谓的“下级官员”，已经越过了行政权力的界限。

问题 1/3：为什么在中期选举前搜查伊尔汗·奥马尔的住所会引起争议？

美国司法部为起诉科米贝壳帖子一事辩护（共3条，此为第2条）

特朗普呼吁对民主党高层人士哈基姆·杰弗里斯提出“煽动”指控（共3项，此为第3项）。

他驳斥了政府的立场，即总统有权进行此类解雇，而不管国会实施了哪些保护措施。

“接受被告的论点将会破坏这个国家宪政体系所建立的平衡，”弗曼写道。

他还驳斥了像科米这样的联邦检察官是总统“最终和排除性”权力的延伸这种观点。

“被告人发明了一种新的、范围极广的行政权力理论，”弗曼在谈到特朗普政府时写道。“他们还利用这种理论解雇了其他长期以来享有免于被解雇保护的行政部门雇员。”

这项裁决对特朗普政府来说是一次挫败，该政府一直试图解雇那些被认为与总统优先事项不符的联邦雇员。

批评人士还指责特朗普试图对他们认为的敌人进行报复。科米是前政府官员詹姆斯·科米的女儿，詹姆斯·科米曾于2013年至2017年担任联邦调查局（FBI）局长。

他在特朗普第一任期内被解雇，此后成为这位共和党领导人最引人注目的批评者之一。

莫琳·科米的法律团队辩称，她被解雇是因为特朗普对她父亲的反感。

在周一的裁决中，弗曼批准了她提出的补发工资请求，要求支付自2025年7月16日被解雇之日起至12月止的工资。他还表示，她有权获得该期间的“追溯复职”。

莫琳·科米自 2015 年起担任美国司法部助理检察官，常驻曼哈顿。

她曾对一些备受瞩目的人物提起诉讼，例如被定罪的性犯罪者杰弗里·爱泼斯坦、他的同伙吉斯莱恩·麦克斯韦以及音乐大亨肖恩·“迪迪”·康姆斯。

科米在诉讼中声称，她的解雇违反了禁止因政治原因解雇公务员的联邦法律。

她还指出，美国宪法规定了权力分立原则，允许国会制定管理联邦雇员的规章制度，只要这些规章制度不干涉总统的权力。

在特朗普领导下的司法部反驳说，总统有很大的自由裁量权，可以无理由解雇联邦雇员。

针对周一的裁决，政府方面表示“不同意这一决定，并将在适当时候提起上诉”。

自连任以来，特朗普一直试图缩减联邦政府的规模，并撤换那些他不同意其意见的案件中的检察官和调查人员。

他还敦促司法部起诉他的几位批评者，其中包括詹姆斯·科米。

2025 年 9 月 20 日，特朗普在社交媒体上发帖，呼吁当时的司法部长帕姆·邦迪对詹姆斯·科米和其他几人提起诉讼。

“这绝对是一个绝佳的案子，许多律师和法律专家都这么说，”特朗普写道。

“我们不能再拖延了，这正在毁掉我们的声誉和信誉。他们无缘无故地弹劾了我两次，起诉了我五次！正义必须得到伸张，刻不容缓！！！”

詹姆斯·科米被解雇时，联邦调查局正在调查特朗普2016年总统竞选与俄罗斯之间可能存在的联系。这项调查经常引起特朗普的愤怒。

在2025年9月那篇报道发表后不久，司法部指控科米向国会撒谎。同年11月，一名法官驳回了此案，理由是提起诉讼的检察官林赛·哈利根的任命不合法。

今年四月，詹姆斯·科米在另一起案件中再次被起诉，他被指控通过在社交媒体上分享贝壳图片来威胁特朗普。

这些贝壳被排列成数字“86 47”。在美国餐饮业中，“86”一词指的是把人赶出酒吧，但特朗普政府声称它与有组织犯罪有关，是一种威胁。

声明还补充说，“47”指的是特朗普，即第47任总统。

这位前联邦调查局局长谴责此案是特朗普执政期间政治迫害的例证。