Obama-Appointed Judge Weighs In On Trump DOJ’s Move Against Comey’s Daughter

A federal judge appointed by former President Barack Obama ruled on Monday that the Justice Department under President Donald Trump had illegally fired Maurene Comey, former FBI Director James Comey’s daughter.

Judge Jesse Furman, nominated by Obama in 2011 and confirmed in 2012, declared the Justice Department’s actions unlawful and that Comey was entitled to back pay. He also concluded that the Trump administration’s argument, if accepted by the court, would upend the constitutional balance of power, according to The New York Times.

“Defendants’ argument that [Constitution] Article II bars Congress from regulating the removal of AUSAs [assistant U.S. attorneys] flies in the face of nearly two centuries of Supreme Court precedent,” Furman wrote in response to the administration’s claim that Article II of the U.S. Constitution gave the Justice Department the authority to remove Comey.

Furman further claimed that allowing that argument to stand would “unsettle the very equilibrium established by this nation’s constitutional system” and “risk a return to the spoils system that Congress has sought to end since the nineteenth century.”

Furman ruled that Comey’s termination was unlawful. He argued that while the Justice Department has wide latitude for firing assistant U.S. attorneys — of which Maureen Comey was one — Congress has used the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) to limit that latitude. The Justice Department conceded that Comey was not fired for cause or for her job performance. The administration also did not provide her advance notice or allow her to respond.

“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. And Comey’s removal indisputably violated the CSRA,” he wrote.

A DOJ spokesperson, according to a report from Fox News Digital, confirmed that the administration plans to appeal Furman’s decision but has not yet determined when it will do so.

Prior to her dismissal, Comey served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York — the same office where her father, former FBI Director James Comey, had worked years earlier — and had prosecuted a number of high-profile cases, including that of the late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Comey’s legal team issued a statement following the ruling, saying, “This hard-earned victory belongs to Ms. Comey, to all civil servants, and to all fighting for the rule of law.”

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