A federal judge on Monday said that the Department of Justice’s firing of New York federal prosecutor Maurene Comey was unlawful.

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The judge ordered that Comey, who is the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, be retroactively reinstated to her job as an assistant United States attorney in the Southern District of New York.

Maurene Comey, who had been involved with prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, was fired in July 2025.

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“First, Comey’s removal was not authorized by any statute; to the contrary, it violated the CSRA [Civil Service Reform Act],” wrote Judge Jesse Furman in the ruling in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

“Yes, the Attorney General is authorized by law to remove an AUSA. But the Attorney General (and anyone to whom the Attorney General delegates that authority) is also limited by law, namely the CSRA, to do so only in a particular manner and only for certain reasons,” Furman wrote. “And Comey’s removal indisputably violated the CSRA.”

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