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News Analysis · October 26, 2026

Federal judge rules Maurene Comey’s firing by Trump administration was illegal

Permanent article number: 102626013   Find another article by number

By Radical Reading Room Newsroom · Published · From the October 26, 2026 edition

Source-backed political accountability Confidence 3/5

Original article being examined

Published by: Washington Examiner

Federal judge rules Maurene Comey’s firing by Trump administration was illegal — Read the exact original

Claim examined: Federal judge ruled that the Trump administration's firing of Maurene Comey was illegal

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U.S. Department of Justice — Public professional press contact
Question: What specific reasons, if any, did the Trump administration provide for Maurene Comey's firing?
Contacted: October 26, 2026 at 5:46 PM (server time).
Status: Response pending; no substantive response recorded.

Civil Rights Courts
No verified accountability finding This archive item is sourced reporting, not a finding that a claim is false or misleading.
Correction: The event described is the October 26, 2026 ruling, which concerned Comey’s July 2025 firing. The draft’s event date is fine if intended to match publication timing, but the underlying firing date should remain July 2025, as written.

A federal judge ruled Monday that the Trump administration’s firing of Maurene Comey, a former federal prosecutor and daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, was unlawful. The ruling was issued by US District Judge Jesse Furman, an Obama appointee, who stated that the firing violated the Civil Service Reform Act. Maurene Comey was abruptly fired from the Justice Department in July 2025, which she claimed came without any notice or explanation and was due to a vendetta against her father. She later filed a criminal complaint against the DOJ in September 2025. The judge ruled that the firing was not authorized by any statute and violated the CSRA, which limits the Attorney General's authority to remove an AUSA only for specific reasons. The ruling comes after Comey sued the administration last month, alleging she was fired without cause or due process.

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