A federal choose signaled Thursday that the U.S. Justice Division is perhaps proper in its argument that fired prosecutor Maurene Comey’s wrongfully termination claims don’t belong in court docket simply but.
Decide Jesse M. Furman in Manhattan declined at a listening to to let attorneys for Comey instantly collect proof to be taught who ordered her firing and the way it transpired. He advised each side to submit written arguments in coming weeks.
However Furman mentioned the federal government had made “serious arguments” when it mentioned in court docket papers that Comey’s criticism about her July firing should first be thought-about by the federal Benefit Programs Safety Board in an administrative setting.
Comey, the daughter of ex-FBI Director James Comey, is searching for proof from the federal government earlier than the choose decides on the Justice Division’s movement to dismiss the case.
John Sarcone, the performing U.S. legal professional for Northern New York, took the case after Manhattan prosecutors who labored with Comey recused themselves. He sat on the protection desk Thursday with Karen Folster Lesperance, the chief of his workplace’s civil division, who argued on behalf of the federal government.
US Legal professional’s Workplace NDNY
U.S. Legal professional John A. Sarcone III. (US Legal professional’s Workplace NDNY)
Lesperance mentioned the method of gathering proof, often known as discovery, would current “some thorny issues,” together with looking the information of high-ranking officers corresponding to President Trump and Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi and the likelihood that he would invoke govt privilege.
“It’s not a simple search of her name, it’s what files and whose files,” Lesperance mentioned.
Comey contends that if Trump or Bondi have been immediately concerned in her firing, she will be able to pursue her claims in federal court docket with out first having to take them to the Benefit Programs Safety Board.
She claimed in her September lawsuit that her dismissal — quickly after she led the prosecution of Sean “Diddy” Combs and received a conviction on prostitution-related expenses — was retribution as a result of her father is a Trump foe. Trump fired James Comey as FBI director in 2017.
A federal choose in Virginia final month dismissed a legal case in opposition to James Comey, concluding that the prosecutor who introduced the fees at Trump’s urging was illegally appointed by the Justice Division. The Trump administration may attempt to have a unique prosecutor refile the fees of constructing a false assertion and obstructing Congress.
Sarcone and Comey declined to remark as they left court docket on Thursday.
FILE – Assistant U.S. Legal professional Maurene Comey is exterior court docket throughout the Sean “Diddy” Combs’ intercourse trafficking trial, June 3, 2025. (AP Picture/Ted Shaffrey, File)
Jennifer Blain, considered one of 4 attorneys representing Maurene Comey, advised Furman that Trump has gutted the Benefit Programs Safety Board as he reshapes the federal authorities and weakens protections for federal staff, and that the board is now not practical to deal with such claims.
The board was not designed to rule “on the constitutionality of the separation of powers” or on “its own existence,” Blain mentioned. She known as the federal government’s argument a “Kafkaesque Catch-22.”
Comey’s fame “has, in fact, been harmed by this unlawful action,” Blain mentioned, noting that high outcomes when looking her title on-line are virtually solely associated to her firing.
— By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER
