U.S. District Court Judge Jesse M. Furman came down with a hammering ruling on Monday in the case of former FBI Director James Comey's daughter.
The New York judge found that Maurene Comey had been illegally terminated by then-Attorney General Pamela Bondi in 2025 and that she must be reinstated with back pay as an Assistant U.S. Attorney also for the Southern District of New York.
Now, that's a big enough deal just having the Comeys get their comeback but, taken to another level, it goes far deeper and represents a major threat to the administration and Trump himself in two staggering areas.
Some backstory. Bondi fired Comey without cause by invoking Article II inherent authority to, well, fire people. This allowed the DOJ to avoid embarrassing questions that may have been brought up should the matter have gone to appeal in the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) whose job is in the name. It ensures that there lies "some" merit to the federal job termination, not some Bondiesque meretriciousness. Phew, because a board hearing sure would be embarrassing.
Except no. Judge Furman said it doesn't work that way. When the DOJ chose to go to Article II inherent authority, bypassing the Board, it landed straight in the judge's lap, where they find themselves in even more trouble than had they simply gone through the civil process, that can take some time.
Judges, not boards, decide what the Constitution says.
This really matters.
First, and hottest, Maurene Comey was fired amidst the turmoil last summer over whether to fully release the Epstein files, and not on account of being a Comey, the moment Bondi first arrived. No, it took the trouble arising up and through the Epstein matter and Trump's own prosecutions against her father to convince Bondi that one of the troublesome lead prosecutors in the Epstein cases, investigating both Ghislaine Maxwell and Epstein himself, best not be around.
After all, who knows better as to what is in those files?
And that bites hard, and not just because Maurene is legally allowed to come straight back to her job and pick up where she left off. Though she's now in private practice and has previously said she wouldn't, that was before today's ruling and doesn't cover a desire to come back once Blanche leaves.
It also matters because she might "not" be able to pick right back up because perhaps, just perhaps, some familiar evidence seems to be missing. If nothing else, a prosecutor with likely a decade of experience in investigating and prosecuting Epstein is eligible to be back, and an explanation might be required as to why she shouldn't be able to pick up her old cases where they still lie.
The win will surely also put a smile on the face of former FBI director and her dad, Jim Comey, who is facing prosecution for the "86-47" crime of the century. Some comeback for Dad Comey.
But on another level, this matter might have even more significance than just the Epstein case, or at least just Maurene Comey and the Epstein case.
Given that the DOJ invoked its "Article II" privilege to fire people in this case, it seems responsible to presume they did so in many FBI and DOJ terminations (and they did), perhaps including former Acting FBI Director and enormously popular among agents, Brian "Drizz" Driscoll, who, along with two other dismissed FBI officials, Steven Jensen and Spencer Evans, brought a separate federal lawsuit alleging politically motivated firings and retaliation for insufficient loyalty to Trump, and, most importantly, cited the same Article II justifications for the terminations. ("Drizz" adamantly defended agents involved in the January 6th prosecution and the special investigations against Trump.)
Hey, everyone! Jump in the van; we're getting the band back together.
Yes, said lightly but meant to be taken heavily, because the comeback will be significant if and when these people start to enter the buildings again; they will bring binders of experience as to what they knew then and all that might have been forgotten now. It is hard to understate the impact the sweeping terminations of everyone with insufficient MAGA scent had on the DOJ and FBI; if and when the army of agents and AUSAs comes back, well, that will be a heavily armed army. We won't hear discussions inside the building; we may hear about the consequences.
If you were a nervous White House official last week, try to imagine this week, because there are far more terminations than just Comey and the three mentioned above. Indeed, on March 26, 2026, speaking at CPAC, then-Deputy Attorney General Blanche declared:
“There is not a single man or woman at the Department of Justice who had anything to do with those prosecutions.”
Right.
He canned all of them, utilizing the exact same justification — invoking Article II privileges and insufficient loyalty to Trump, the man himself. Now, about those conversations in the building...
We cannot know whether Blanche will insist that all DOJ AUSAs and FBI agents terminated must find themselves sitting in an empty office all day every day, where they cannot cause trouble. What we can know is that they will be there the day Congress gets back and the day that this administration blessedly ends and within earshot of what might be happening in between.
And that is when there might really be some comeback. Oh, and Epstein.
Jason Miciak is a Raw Story columnist, former Editor at Occupy Democrats, author, attorney, consultant and single-parent girldad. Please follow on Bluesky, and he can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com