NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Maureen Comey can move forward with her lawsuit claiming she was wrongly fired as a federal prosecutor because President Donald Trump disliked her father, former FBI Director James Comey.
Judge Jesse M. Furman rejected the Justice Department’s argument that Comey’s complaint about her firing last year should be moved out of court and handled by an administrative panel.
Furman, of Manhattan, said in a written ruling that the only reason Maureen Comey was fired last year was Article II of the U.S. Constitution, which gives the president “executive power.”
Reason, he said, excludes her case from proceedings that divert many, if not most, categories of disputes between federal employers and employees to avenues of administrative and judicial review other than district courts.
Maureen Comey’s attorneys said in a statement that they were “thrilled” by Furman’s ruling because their client’s “unlawful and unconstitutional termination” belongs in federal court, where issues related to the constitutional separation of powers are typically litigated.
“No president can ignore the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and federal law and fire a career federal employee simply because of her last name,” attorneys Ellen Blain and Nicole Gueron said.
The Justice Department had no immediate comment.
Furman’s ruling came the same day Maureen Comey’s father was indicted again, this time in an investigation into a social media photo of shells on a beach that officials said posed a threat to Trump. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The new indictment against James Comey comes months after an unrelated, separate indictment was dismissed. Trump fired him in 2017.
Furman said Maureen Comey filed the lawsuit after she was fired over the summer, shortly after she led the prosecution of “Diddy” Sean Combs and was convicted on prostitution-related charges. She claims she was wrongfully dismissed solely or substantially because of who her father was or because of her perceived political affiliation or beliefs.
Furman wrote that Comey was “by all accounts an exemplary Assistant U.S. Attorney” who during her nearly decade as a prosecutor had been “assigned to some of the nation’s most high-profile cases, and she has consistently received the highest praise from her superiors and peers.”
During oral arguments in December, Furman refused to let Comey immediately gather evidence to understand who ordered her firing and how it happened, saying the administration had made serious arguments that her firing must first be considered by the federal Merit System Protection Commission.
Furman is scheduled for the first pretrial conference hearing in the civil case on May 28.