Judge allows Maurene Comey's lawsuit challenging her firing to proceed

Washington — A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey's case challenging her firing by President Trump can move forward in federal court. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman rejected the Trump administration's attempt to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, had to bring her claims before the Merit Systems Protection Board. That agency is tasked with adjudicating appeals from federal employees regarding adverse actions taken against them. Instead, Furman found that because Comey's firing rested on Article II of the Constitution, not a federal law governing the civil service, the federal court has jurisdiction to hear the case. "Defendants' sole reliance on the Constitution — rather than the removal provisions of the [Civil Service Reform Act] — places Comey's case outside the universe of cases that Congress intended the MSPB to resolve," the judge wrote in his 27-page decision. Comey served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York for nearly a decade and worked on high-profile cases, including those involving convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, Sean "Diddy" Combs and Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey. …