Washington — A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey’s case challenging her firing by President Trump can move forward in federal court.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, had to bring her claims before the Merit Systems Protection Board. That agency is tasked with adjudicating appeals from federal employees regarding adverse actions taken against them.
Instead, Furman found that because Comey’s firing rested on Article II of the Constitution, not a federal law governing the civil service, the federal court has jurisdiction to hear the case.
“Defendants’ sole reliance on the Constitution — rather than the removal provisions of the [Civil Service Reform Act] — places Comey’s case outside the universe of cases that Congress intended the MSPB to resolve,” the judge wrote in his 27-page decision.
Comey served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York for nearly a decade and worked on high-profile cases, including those involving convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, Sean “Diddy” Combs and Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey.
But last July, she received a memorandum from the Justice Department stating “notice of removal from federal service.”
“Pursuant to Article II of the United States Constitution and the laws of the United States, your employment with the Department of Justice is hereby terminated, and you are removed from federal service effective immediately,” the memo stated.
Comey asked interim U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton about the basis for her firing, and he told her, “All I can say is it came from Washington. I can’t tell you anything else,” according to court papers.
Comey alleges that she was likely fired because of Mr. Trump’s dislike of her father. The president frequently attacks the former FBI director because of his role in investigating alleged ties between the president’s 2016 campaign and Russia. James Comey was indicted by a federal grand jury in Virginia last year, but the charges were dismissed on the grounds that Lindsey Halligan, the prosecutor who pursued the indictment, was improperly appointed to the role.
Comey first filed an appeal of her firing with the Merit Systems Protection Board last August and then filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that her removal violated the Constitution and federal law. She is seeking a court order reinstating her to her role and back pay through Dec. 20, 2025.
The Trump administration, though, asked the court to dismiss her case on the grounds that the district court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case.
In allowing Comey’s lawsuit to move forward in federal court, Furman found that her case does not fall within the purview of the scheme laid out in the Civil Service Reform Act because she was fired pursuant to Article II of the Constitution.
“The Court finds that Comey’s claims are not of the type Congress intended to be reviewed within that scheme because it would deprive her of meaningful judicial review, her claims are wholly collateral to the CSRA’s review provisions, and her claims — which raise fundamental constitutional questions — fall outside of the MSPB’s traditional expertise,” he wrote.
